wide; lay some apricot or peach marmalade equally along these, and fold the paste twice over it, close the ends carefully, and when all are ready slide them gently into a pan of boiling lard;* as soon as they begin to brown, raise the pan from the fire that they may not take too much colour before the paste is done quite through. Five minutes will fry them. Drain them well, and dry them on a soft cloth before the fire; dish them on a napkin, and place one layer crossing another, or merely pile them high in the centre. If well made, and served of a light brown and very dry, these cannelons are excellent: when lard is objected to butter may be used instead, but the paste will then be somewhat less light. Only lard of the purest quality will answer for the purpose.

5 minutes.

CANNELONS OF BRIOCHE PASTE. (ENTREMETS.)

Proceed exactly as for the cannelons above, substituting the brioche for the puff-paste, and rolling it as thin as possible, as it swells very much in the pan. It is a good plan to pass a notched paste-runner, should there be one at hand, lightly upon the edge of the second folding of the crust, which should reach about to the centre of the cannelon: precaution should always be taken to close the paste so as to prevent the escape of the preserve. Fine sugar may be sifted over these after they are dried and dished.

Wipe very clean, in a dry cloth, seven ounces of rice, put it

*Cannelons may be either baked or fried: if sent to the oven, they may first be glazed with white of egg and sugar.

into a clean stewpan, and pour on it a quart of new milk; let it swell gently by the side of the fire, and stir it often that it may not stick to the pan, nor burn; when it is about half done, stir to it five ounces of pounded sugar, and six bitter almonds beaten extremely fine: the thin rind of half a fresh lemon may be added in the first instance. The rice must be simmered until it is soft, and very thick and dry; it should then be spread on a dish, and left until cold, when it is to be rolled into small balls, which must be dipped into beaten egg, and then covered in every part with the finest bread-crumbs. When all are ready, fry them a light brown in fresh butter, and dry them well before the fire, upon a sieve reversed and covered with a very soft cloth, or with a sheet of white blotting paper. Pile them in a hot dish, and send them to table quickly.

Rice, 7 ozs.; milk, 1 quart; rind of lemon: & hour. Sugar, 5 ozs.; bitter almonds, 6: 40 to 60 minutes, or more. Fried, 5 to 7 minutes.

FINER CROQUETTES OF RICE. (ENTREMETS.)

Swell the rice in thin cream, or in new milk strongly flavoured with cocoa-nut (see page 429), add the same ingredients as in the foregoing receipt, and when the rice is cold, form it into balls, and with the thumb of the right hand hollow them sufficiently to admit in the centre a small portion of peach jam, or of apricot marmalade; close the rice well over it; egg, crumb, and fry the croquettes as usual. As, from the difference of quality, the same proportions of rice and milk will not always produce the same effect, the cook must use her discretion in adding, should it be needed, sufficient liquid to soften the rice perfectly: but she must bear in mind that if not boiled extremely thick and dry, it will be difficult to make it into croquettes.

SAVOURY CROQUETTES OF RICE. (ENTRÉE.)

These are made with the same preparation as the casserole of rice of Chapter XVI., but it must be boiled very dry, and left to become quite cold before it is used. A few spoonsful of rich white sauce stirred into it when it is nearly tender, will improve it much. Form and hollow the croquettes as directed in the last receipt; fill them with a small portion of minced fowl, partridge, or pheasant, in a thick sauce, or with a stewed oyster, or two cut in quarters; close the rice perfectly over them; egg, and crumb the croquettes, fry and serve them garnished with crisped parsley. French cooks mix sometimes a little grated Parmesan cheese with the rice at the moment it is taken from the fire, and roll

the croquettes in more after they are egged; they press this on them, dip them again in egg, and then into the crumbs. Raise the pan high above the fire when the croquettes are lightly browned, that they may heat through; then heighten the colour, and lift them out immediately,

RISSOLES. (ENTRÉE.)

This is the French name for small fried pastry of various forms, filled with meat or fish previously cooked; they may be made with brioche, or with light puff-paste, either of which must be rolled extremely thin. Cut it with a small round cutter fluted or plain; put a little rich mince, or good pounded meat, in the centre, and moisten the edges, and press them securely together that they may not burst open in the frying. The rissoles may be formed like small patties, by laying a second round of paste over the meat; or, like cannelons; they may, likewise, be brushed with egg, and sprinkled with vermicelli, broken small, or with fine crumbs. They are sometimes made in the form of croquettes, the paste being gathered round the meat, which must form a ball.

In frying them, adopt the same plan as for the croquettes, raising the pan as soon as the paste is lightly coloured. Serve all these fried dishes well drained, and on a napkin. From 5 to 7 minutes, or less.

VERY SAVOURY RISSOLES. (ENTRÉE.)

Make the forcemeat No. 1, page 143, sufficiently firm with unbeaten yolk of egg, to roll rather thin on a well-floured board; cut it into very small rounds, put a little pounded chicken in the centre of one half, moistening the edges with water, or white of egg, lay the remaining rounds over these, close them securely, and fry them in butter a fine light brown; drain and dry them well, and heap them in the middle of a hot dish, upon a napkin folded flat: these rissoles may be egged and crumbed before they are fried.

RISSOLES OF FISH. (ENTRÉE.)

Take perfectly clear from bones and skin, the flesh of any cold fish that can be pounded to an exceedingly fine paste; add to it, when in the mortar, from one quarter to a third as much of good butter, and a high seasoning of cayenne, with a moderate one of mace and nutmeg. To these may be added, at pleasure, a few shrimps, or a little of any of the finer fish sauces, or some lobster-coral. When the whole is well beaten and blended to

gether, roll out some good puff-paste extremely thin, and with a small round tin shape, cut out the number of rissoles required; put some of the fish into each of these, moisten the edges with white of egg, fold and press them securely together, and when all are ready, slip them gently into a pan of boiling lard or butter; fry them a pale brown, drain them well, and dry them on white blotting-paper, laid upon a sieve, reversed; but do not place them sufficiently near to scorch or to colour them.

TO BOIL PIPE MACCARONI.

We have found always the continental mode of dressing maccaroni the best. English cooks sometimes soak it in milk and water for an hour or more, before it is boiled, that the pipes may be swollen to the utmost, but this is apt to render it pulpy, though its appearance may be improved by it. Drop it lightly, and by degrees, into a large pan of fast-boiling water, into which a little salt, and a bit of butter the size of a walnut, have previously been thrown, and of which the boiling should not be stopped by the addition of the maccaroni. In from three quarters of an hour to an hour this will be sufficiently tender; it should always be perfectly so, as it is otherwise indigestible, though the pipes should remain entire. Pour it into a large cullender, and drain the water well from it. It should be very softly boiled after the first minute or two.

to 1 hour.

RIBBAND MACCARONI.

This is dressed in precisely the same manner as the pipe maccaroni, but requires only from fourteen to sixteen minutes' boiling in water, and twenty or more in broth or stock.

DRESSED MACCARONI.

Four ounces of pipe maccaroni is sufficient for a small dish, but from six to eight should be prepared for a family party where it is liked. The common English mode of dressing it is with grated cheese, butter, and cream, or milk. French cooks substitute generally a spoonful or two of very strong rich jellied gravy for the cream; and the Italians, amongst their many other modes of serving it, toss it in rich brown gravy, with sufficient grated cheese to flavour the whole strongly; they send it to table also simply laid into a good Espagnole or brown gravy (that drawn from the stufato, for example), accompanied by a plate of grated cheese. Another, and an easy mode of dressing it is to boil and drain it well, and to put it into a deep

dish, strewing grated cheese on every layer, and adding bits of fresh butter to it. The top, in this case, should be covered with a layer of fine bread-crumbs, mixed with grated cheese; these should be moistened plentifully with clarified butter, and colour given to them in the oven, or before the fire; the crumbs may be omitted, and a layer of cheese substituted for them. An excellent preparation of maccaroni may be made with any wellflavoured, dry white cheese, which can be grated easily, at much less cost than with the Parmesan, which is expensive, and in the country not always procurable even; we think that the rich brown gravy is also a great advantage to the dish, which is further improved by a tolerably high seasoning of cayenne. These, however, are innovations on the usual modes of serving it in England.

After it has been boiled quite tender, drain it well, dissolve from two to three ounces of good butter in a clean stewpan, with a few spoonsful of rich cream, or of white sauce, lay in part of the maccaroni, strew part of the cheese upon it, add the remainder of the maccaroni and the cheese, and toss the whole gently until the ingredients are well incorporated, and adhere to the maccaroni, leaving no liquid perceptible: serve it immediately. Maccaroni, 6 ozs.; butter, 3 ozs.; Parmesan cheese, 6 ozs.; cream, 4 tablespoonsful.

Obs. If preferred so, cheese may be strewed thickly over the maccaroni after it is dished, and just melted and browned with a salamander.

MACCARONI À LA REINE.

This is a very excellent and delicate mode of dressing maccaroni. Boil eight ounces in the usual way (see page 421), and by the time it is sufficiently tender, dissolve gently ten ounces of any rich, well-flavoured white cheese in full three quarters of a pint of good cream; add a little salt, a rather full seasoning of cayenne, from half to a whole saltspoonful of pounded mace, and a couple of ounces of sweet fresh butter. The cheese should, in the first instance, be sliced very thin, and taken quite free of the hard part adjoining the rind; it should be stirred in the cream without intermission until it is entirely dissolved, and the whole is perfectly smooth: the maccaroni, previously welldrained, may then be tossed gently in it, or after it is dished, the cheese may be poured equally over the maccaroni. The whole, in either case, may be thickly covered before it is sent to table, with fine crumbs of bread fried of a pale gold colour, and dried perfectly, either before the fire or in an oven, when such