MACARONI SOUP.
Ingredients.—3 oz. of macaroni, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, salt to taste, 2 quarts of clear stock. Mode.—Throw the macaroni and butter into boiling water, with a pinch of salt, and simmer for ½ an hour. When it is tender, drain and cut it into thin rings or lengths, and drop it into the boiling stock. Stew gently for 15 minutes, and serve grated Parmesan cheese with it. Time.—¾ to 1 hour. Average cost, 1s. per quart. Seasonable all the year. Sufficient for 8 persons.
MACARONI, a Sweet Dish of.
Ingredients.—¼ lb. of macaroni, 1½ pint of milk, the rind of ½ lemon, 3 oz. of lump sugar, ¾ pint of custard. Mode.—Put the milk into a saucepan, with the lemon-peel and sugar; bring it to the boiling-point, drop in the macaroni, and let it gradually swell over a gentle fire, but do not allow the pipes to break. The form should be entirely preserved; and, though tender, should be firm, and not soft, with no part beginning to melt. Should the milk dry away before the macaroni is sufficiently swelled, add a little more. Make a custard, place the macaroni on a dish, and pour the custard over the hot macaroni; grate over it a little nutmeg, and, when cold, garnish the dish with slices of candied citron. Time.—From 40 to 50 minutes to swell the macaroni. Average cost, with the custard, 1s. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Seasonable at any time.
MACAROONS.
Ingredients.—½ lb. of sweet almonds, ½ lb. of sifted loaf sugar, the whites of three eggs, wafer paper. Mode.—Blanch, skin and dry the almonds, and pound them well with a little orange flower or plain water, then add the sifted sugar and the whites of the eggs, which should be beaten to a stiff froth, and mix all the ingredients well together. When the paste looks soft, drop it at equal distances from a biscuit syringe on to sheets of wafer paper: put a strip of almond on the top of each; strew some syrup over, and bake the macaroons in rather a slow oven, of a light brown colour. When hard and set, they are done. They must not be allowed to get very brown, as that would spoil their appearance. If the cakes when baked, appear heavy, add a little more white of egg, which should be well whisked up before it is added to the other ingredients. Time.—From 15 to 20 minutes. Average cost, 1s. 8d. per lb.
MACKEREL.
In choosing this fish, purchasers should, to a great extent, be regulated by the brightness of its appearance. If it has a transparent, silvery hue, the flesh is good; but if it be red about the head, it is stale.