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Pate of Macaroni

Put into a saucepan six ounces of the best macaroni, broken into convenient pieces, with a moderate-sized onion and three pints of boiling water, seasoned with half a salt-spoonful of salt and half a salt-spoonful of pepper, and let them simmer gently for twenty minutes; drain the macaroni well, put it back into the saucepan, with half a pint of broth, and let it simmer again until tender but unbroken and the onion is absorbed. Place a layer of the macaroni at the bottom of a deep pie-dish, sprinkle over it a dessert-spoonful of grated Parmesan, and put little pieces of butter here and there upon it; cover it with beef steak which has been seasoned rather highly, stewed until tender in good brown gravy, and then cut into small thin pieces. A pound of beef steak will be sufficient for this quantity of macaroni. If preferred, fricasseed chicken, minced veal, sweetbread cut into dice, or mushrooms, may be substituted for the beef, but they must all be stewed in rich gravy before they are put with the macaroni. Fill up the dish with alternate layers of macaroni and meat, and let the uppermost layer be composed of the former; sprinkle an ounce of Parmesan over the top, and pour over it half an ounce of clarified butter, then put the dish into a Dutch oven, before a clear fire, or into the oven, and when the cheese is dissolved the pate is ready for serving. Time to bake, five or six minutes. Probable cost, 2s., if made with steak. Sufficient for four or five persons.