Handbook of practical cookery

Wash well the macaroni, place it in a sauce-pan, cover it with the milk, and boil it slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Drain the macaroni well on a sieve, and cut it in half-inch lengths. Melt in a sauce-pan the butter, add the flour, then by degrees the cream, stir all till boiling, boil two minutes, take the pan at once from the fire, add the cut macaroni, the pepper, salt, and cayenne. Grate the cheese, add it also, then drop in the yolks of the two eggs, stir it well together and place it on one side till quite cold. Roll then the mixture into small balls, beat well the whites of egg on a plate, roll the balls in the whites, then place the bread crumbs on a paper, and roll the balls also in it. Heat some clarified fat in a stew-pan ; when the smoke rises drop in the balls and brown them for two minutes. Drain on a sheet of kitchen paper, and serve very hot. POTATO FRITTERS. 131 Anchovy and Egg Croquettes. — Two tea-spoonfuls anchovy paste, two hard-boiled eggs, one ounce cold boiled tongue, quarter tea-spoonful pepper, one raw egg, four tablespoonfuls bread crumbs. Dip the hard-boiled eggs into cold water, and then remove the shells; chop the eggs up very finely, place them in a basin, and add to them the anchovy paste. Beat this mixture well together with the back of a wooden spoon. Chop now almost to a powder the tongue, add it to the mixture in the basin, and season all with the pepper. Take a teaspoonful of the mixture and roll it into a small ball. When all is used up, beat well on a plate the raw egg, and dip each ball into it. Place now on a sheet of paper the bread crumbs, and roll each ball in them. Heat some clarified fat until the steam rises, and just before dropping in the balls make a small hole in each with the point of the finger. When the balls have taken a pale brown colour place them for a second on a sheet of paper ; then arrange them on a hot napkin, place in the centre of each a tea-spoonful of maltre d'hotel butter, and send to table at once. (Directions for maitre d'hotel butter will be found on page 118). FRITTERS. Potato Fritters.— Six boiled potatoes, three ounces of flour, one table-spoonful of salad oil, one gill of tepid water, one half tea-spoonful of white pepper, one tea-spoonful of salt, white of one egg. Put the flour into a bowl, mix with it the salt and pepper, pour into the centre the salad oil, and over this the tepid water, beating all well together. Whip the white of egg to a stiff froth, and add this to the mixture in the bowl, stirring very carefully in order not to break the froth. Quarter the potatoes, and dip each piece separately into the batter. Throw them into hot clarified fat, and let them fry three minutes. Remove them from the frying-pan, drain them of grease upon a sheet of kitchen-paper, and serve piled high in a vegetable dish. NOTES. — All batters should be made an hour or two before using, adding the white of egg just at the moment of use, as the grains of flour soak and swell out by standing after being moistened, and so the batter becomes lighter. Parsnip fritters may be prepared with the same kind of batter used for the potato, but when parsnips are used they must be thoroughly dried before being dipped into the batter.