CHEESE SOUFFLE.--(_See_ OMELETS.)

CHEESE PUDDING.--Mix half a pound of grated Parmesan cheese with four eggs, well beaten up; mix in also two ounces of b.u.t.ter, which should be first beaten to a cream, add half a pint of milk and pour the mixture into a well-b.u.t.tered pie-dish, sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese over the top, and bake in the oven for about half an hour. The pudding will be lighter if two of the whites of eggs are beaten to a stiff froth. The edge of the pie-dish can be lined with puff-paste.

CHEESE RAMEQUINS.--Put half a pound of grated Parmesan cheese in a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter and a quarter of a pint of water; add a little pepper and salt, and as much flour as will make the whole into a thick paste. Mix up with the paste as many well-beaten-up eggs as will make the paste not too liquid to be moulded into a shape. The eggs should be beaten till they froth. Now, with a tablespoon, mould this mixture into shapes like a meringue or egg; place these on a b.u.t.tered tin and bake them till they are a nice brown colour.

CHEESE, STEWED.--When the remains of cheese have got very dry it is a good plan to use it up in the shape of stewed cheese. Break up the cheese and put it in a small stew-pan with about a quarter its weight of b.u.t.ter; add a little milk, and let the cheese stew gently till it is dissolved. At the finish, and when you have removed it from the fire, add a well-beaten-up egg. This can be served on toast, or it can be poured on to a dish and pieces of toasted bread stuck in it.

CHEESE STRAWS.--Mix equal quant.i.ties of grated Parmesan cheese, grated bread-crumbs that have been rubbed through a wire sieve, b.u.t.ter, and flour; add a little cayenne and grated nutmeg. Make it into a thick paste, roll it out very thin, cut it into strips, and bake for a few minutes in a fierce oven.

CHEESE, TOASTED.--This is best done in a Dutch oven, so that when one side is toasted you can turn the oven and toast the back; as soon as the cheese begins to melt it is done. As it gets cold very quickly, and when cold gets hard, it is best served on hot-water plates.

CHEESE, DEVILLED.--Chop up some hot pickles, add some cayenne pepper and mustard. Melt some cheese in a stew-pan with a little b.u.t.ter, mix in the pickles, and serve on toast.

WELSH RAREBIT.--Toast a large slice of bread; in the meantime melt some cheese in the saucepan with a little b.u.t.ter. When the cheese is melted it will be found that a good deal of oiled b.u.t.ter floats on the top. Pour this over the dry toast first, and then pour the melted cheese afterwards.

Some persons add a teaspoonful of Worcester sauce to the cheese, and others a tablespoonful of good old Burton ale over the top.

AYOLI.--This is a dish almost peculiar to the South of France. Soak some crusts of bread in water, squeeze them dry, and add two cloves of garlic chopped fine, six blanched almonds, also chopped very fine, and a yolk of an egg; mix up the whole into a smooth paste with a little oil.

PUMPKIN A LA PARMESANE.--Cut a large pumpkin into square pieces and boil them for about a quarter of an hour in salt and water, and take them out, drain them, and put them in a stew-pan with a little b.u.t.ter, salt, and grated nutmeg; fry them, sprinkle them with a little Parmesan cheese, and bake them for a short time in the oven till the cheese begins to melt, and then serve. This is an Italian recipe.

ZUCCHETTI FARCIS.--Take some very small gourds or pumpkins, boil them for about a quarter of an hour in salt and water, and then fill them with a forcemeat made as follows: Take some crumb of bread and soak it in milk, squeeze it and add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs and two raw yolks; chop up very finely half a dozen blanched almonds with a couple of cloves; add two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, and a little salt and grated nutmeg. Stew these gourds in b.u.t.ter and serve them with white sauce.

STUFFED ONIONS (ITALIAN FASHION).--Parboil some large onions, stamp out the core after they have been allowed to get quite cold in a little water; fill the inside with forcemeat similar to the above; fry then), squeeze the juice of a lemon over them, with a little pepper.

POLENTA.--Polenta is made from ground Indian corn, and is seen in Italian shop-windows in the form of a yellow powder; it is made into a paste with boiling water, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and baked in the oven.

PIROSKI SERNIKIS.--This dish is met with in Poland, and is made by mixing up two pounds of cream-cheese, three-quarters of a pound of fine bread-crumbs that have been rubbed through a wire sieve, six eggs well beaten up; add a little cream or milk, four ounces of washed grocer's currants, one ounce of sugar, half a grated nutmeg; and when the whole is thoroughly mixed add as much flour as is necessary to make the whole into a paste that can be rolled into b.a.l.l.s. These b.a.l.l.s should not be much bigger than a walnut. Flour them, and then flatten them into little cakes and fry them a nice brown in some b.u.t.ter.

Of course, a smaller quant.i.ty can be made by using these ingredients in proportion.

NALESNIKIS (POLISH PANCAKES).--Take eight eggs and beat them up very thoroughly with about a pint and a half of milk, or still better, cream, two ounces of b.u.t.ter that has been oiled, half a grated nutmeg, and about a dozen lumps of sugar that have been rubbed on the outside of a lemon; mix in sufficient flour--about three-quarters of a pound will be required--to make the whole into a very smooth batter. Melt a little b.u.t.ter in a frying-pan, pour it all over the pan, and when it frizzles, pour in some of the batter, and sprinkle over a few currants; when the pancake is fried, shake some powdered sugar over it, roll it up like an ordinary pancake, and serve hot.

FRITTERS.

BATTER FOR SAVOURY FRITTERS.--Put six ounces of flour into a basin, with a pinch of salt, the yolk of one egg, and a quarter of a pint of warm water.

Work this round and round with a wooden spoon till it is perfectly smooth and looks like thick cream. About half an hour before the batter is wanted for use whip the white of one egg to a stiff froth and mix it lightly in.

MUSHROOM FRITTERS.--Make some mushroom forcemeat; let it get quite cold on a dish about a quarter of an inch thick. Cut out some small rounds, about the size of a penny-piece. They fry better if slightly oval. Have ready some thick batter (_See_ BATTER). Have also ready in a saucepan some boiling oil, which should be heated to about 350 degrees. Place a frying-basket in the saucepan, flour the rounds of mushroom forcemeat so as to make them perfectly dry on the outside. Dip these pieces into the batter and throw them into the boiling oil. The great heat of the oil will set the batter before the mushroom force-meat has time to melt. Directly the batter is a nice light-brown colour, lift them out of the boiling oil with the frying-basket, and throw them on to a cloth to drain. Break off the outside pieces of batter, and serve the fritters on a neatly folded napkin on a dish surrounded by fried parsley.

The beauty of these fritters is that when they are eaten the inside is moist, owing, of course, to the heat having melted the forcemeat.

TOMATO FRITTERS.--Make some mushroom forcemeat and spread it out as thin as possible. Take some ripe tomatoes, cut them in slices, dip the slice in vinegar, drain it and pepper it, and then wrap this thin slice of tomato in a layer of mushroom forcemeat. Bring the edges together, flour it, dip it into batter (_see_ BATTER), and throw it into boiling oil as in making mushroom fritters (_see_ MUSHROOM FRITTERS).

IMITATION GAME FRITTERS.--Make some mushroom force-meat as directed under the heading "Mushroom Forcemeat," with the addition of, when you fry the mushrooms, chop up and fry with them two heads of garlic, and add a saltspoonful of aromatic flavouring herbs. (These, are sold in bottles by all grocers under the name of "Herbaceous Mixture.") Then proceed exactly as if you were making mushroom fritters (_see_ MUSHROOM FRITTERS).

HOMINY FRITTERS.--These are made from remains of cold boiled hominy, cut in thin slices, which must be dipped in batter and fried in boiling oil.

CHEESE FRITTERS.--Pound some dry cheese, or take about three ounces of Parmesan cheese, and mix it with a few bread-crumbs, a piece of b.u.t.ter, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and the yolk of an egg, till the whole becomes a thick paste. Roll the mixture into very small b.a.l.l.s, flatten them, flour them, dip them into batter, and throw them into boiling oil in the ordinary way. Put them in the oven for five minutes before serving them.

SAGE AND ONION FRITTERS.--Make some ordinary sage and onion stuffing, allowing one fresh sage leaf or two dried to each parboiled onion; add pepper and salt and dried breadcrumbs. Now moisten the whole with clarified b.u.t.ter, till the mixture becomes a moist pulp. When it begins to get cold and sets, roll it into small b.a.l.l.s, the size of a very small walnut, flatten these and let them get quite cold, then flour them, dip them into batter, and throw them into boiling oil; remove them with the frying-basket, and serve with fried parsley.

SPINACH FRITTERS.--Make a little thick puree of spinach, add a pinch of savoury herbs containing marjoram; mix in a little clarified b.u.t.ter and one or two lumps of sugar rubbed on the outside of a lemon, as well as a little grated nutmeg. Roll the mixture into very small ball; or else they will break, flatten them, flour them, dip them into batter, and throw them into boiling oil, and serve immediately.

FRITTERS, SWEET.--In making sweet fritters, the same kind of batter will do as we used for making savoury fritters, though many cooks add a little powdered sugar. The same principles hold good. The oil must be heated to a temperature of 350 degrees, and a frying-basket must be used. Instead of flouring the substances employed to make them dry, before being dipped into the batter, which is an essential point in making fritters, we must use finely powdered sugar, and it will be found a saving of both time and trouble to buy pounded sugar for the purpose. It is sold by grocers under the name of castor sugar. We cannot make this at home in a pestle and mortar to the same degree of fineness any more than we could grind our own flour. We cannot compete with machinery.

APPLE FRITTERS.--Peel some apples, cut them in slices across the core, and stamp out the core. It is customary, where wine, &c., is not objected to, to soak these rings of apples for several hours in a mixture of brandy, grated lemon or orange peel and sugar, or better still, to rub some lumps of sugar on the outside of a lemon or orange and dissolve this in the brandy. Of course, brandy is not necessary, but the custom is worth mentioning. The rings of apple can be soaked for some time in syrup flavoured this way. They must then be made dry by being dipped in powdered sugar, then dipped into batter and thrown, one at a time, into a saucepan containing smoking hot oil in which a wire frying-basket has been placed.

Directly the fritters are a nice brown, take them out, break off the rough pieces, shake some finely powdered sugar over them, pile them up on a dish, and serve.

APRICOT FRITTERS.--These can be made from fresh apricots or tinned ones, not too ripe; if they break they are not fitted. When made from fresh apricots they should be peeled, cut in halves, the round end removed, dipped in powdered sugar, then dipped in batter, thrown into boiling oil, and finished like apple fritters. Some persons soak the apricots in brandy.

BANANA FRITTERS.--Banana fritters can be made from the bananas as sold in this country, and it is a mistake to think that when they are black outside they are bad. When in this state they are sometimes sold as cheap as six a penny. Peel the bananas, cut them into slices half an inch thick, dip them into finely powdered sugar and then into batter, and finish as directed in apple fritters.

Some persons soak the slices of banana in maraschino.

CUSTARD FRITTERS.--Take half a pint of cream in which some cinnamon and lemon have been boiled, add to this five yolks of eggs, a little flour, and about three ounces of sugar. Put this into a pie-dish, well b.u.t.tered, and steam it till the custard becomes quite set; then let it get cold, and cut it into slices about half an inch thick and an inch and a half long, sprinkle each piece with a little powdered cinnamon, and make it quite dry with some powdered sugar. Then dip each piece into batter, throw them one by one into boiling oil, and finish as directed for apple fritters.

ALMOND FRITTERS, CHOCOLATE FRITTERS, COFFEE FRITTERS, VANILLA FRITTERS, &c.--These fritters are made exactly in the same way as custard fritters, only subst.i.tuting powdered chocolate, pounded almonds, essence of coffee, or essence of vanilla, for the powdered cinnamon.

FRANGIPANE FRITTERS.--Make a Frangipane cream by mixing eggs with a little cold potato, b.u.t.ter, sugar, and powdered ratafias, the proportion being a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, four eggs, six ounces of sugar, one cold floury potato, and a quarter of a pound of ratafias. Bake or steam this until it is set, and proceed as in custard fritters. Many persons add the flavouring of a little rum.