of the dish to moisten them; put the dish in the oven till it is hot through, then take it out and brown the top quickly with a red-hot salamander.  If you leave the macaroni cheese in the oven too long the dish will taste oily and the cheese get so hard as to become absolutely indigestible.  Any kind of grated cheese will do for this dish, but to the English palate it is best when made from a moist cheese similar to that which would be used in making Welsh rabbit.

MACARONI AND EGGS.—­Take half a pound of macaroni and throw it into boiling water that has been salted.  In the meantime have ready four hard-boiled eggs.  When the macaroni is nearly tender throw the hard-boiled eggs into cold water for a minute, in order to enable you to take off the shells without burning your fingers.  Cut the eggs in half, take out the half yellow yolk without breaking it; cut the whites of the eggs into rings and mix these rings with the macaroni on the dish.  The macaroni and eggs must be flavoured with pepper and salt, and if possible pour a little white sauce over the whole.  If you have no white sauce add a little cream or a little thickened milk with a little butter dissolved in it; now sprinkle a little chopped blanched parsley over the whole and ornament the dish with the eight half-yolks.

MACARONI A LA REINE.—­Boil half a pound of pipe macaroni.  Meanwhile warm slowly in a saucepan three-quarters of a pint of cream, and slice into it half a pound of Stilton or other white cheese, add two ounces of good fresh butter, two blades of mace, pounded, a good pinch of cayenne and a little salt.  Stir until the cheese is melted and the whole is free from lumps, when put in the macaroni and move it gently round the pan until mixed and hot, or put the macaroni on a hot dish and pour the sauce over.  It may be covered with fried bread-crumbs of a pale colour and browned in a Dutch oven.

MACARONI AU GRATIN.—­Break up a pound of macaroni in three-inch lengths, boil as usual and drain.  Put into a stew-pan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, the macaroni, twelve ounces of Parmesan and Gruyere cheese mixed, and about a quarter of a pint of some good sauce, white sauce.  Move the stew-pan and its contents over the fire until the macaroni has absorbed the butter, etc., then turn it out on a dish, which should be garnished with croutons of fried bread.  Pile it in the shape of a dome, cover with bread-raspings, a little clarified butter run through a colander, and brown very lightly with a salamander.

N.B.—­The above two recipes are taken from “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery.”

MACARONI AS AN ORNAMENT.—­Macaroni is sometimes used to ornament the outside of puddings, either savoury or sweet.  Suppose the pudding has to be made in a small round mould or basin.  Some pipe macaroni is boiled in water till it is tender, and then cut up into little pieces a quarter of an inch in length.  The inside of the mould is first thickly buttered, and then these little quarter-inch tubes are stuck in the butter close together; the pudding, for instance a custard pudding, is then poured into the mould and the mould steamed.  When the pudding is turned out the outside of the pudding has the appearance of a honey-comb, and looks extremely pretty.  The process is not difficult, but rather troublesome, as it requires time and patience.