ITALIAN POLENTA

Polenta is made of ground Indian-corn, and may be used either as a separate dish or as a garnish for roast meat, pigeons, chicken, etc. It is made like porridge; gradually drop the meal with one hand into boiling stock or water, and stir continually with a wooden spoon with the other hand. In about a quarter of an hour it will be quite thick and smooth, then add a little butter and grated Parmesan, and one egg beaten up. Let it get cold, then put it in layers in a baking-dish, add a little butter to each layer, sprinkle with plenty of Parmesan, and bake it for about an hour in a slow oven. Serve hot.

Ingredients:  Polenta, butter, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes.

Prepare a good Basic Italian Polenta as above, put it in layers in a fireproof dish, and add by degrees one and a half ounces of melted butter, two cooked mushrooms cut up, and two tablespoonsful of grated cheese. Put the dish in the oven, and before serving brown it over with salamander.

TIP: If you like, you may add a good-sized tomato mashed up.

Ingredients:  Polenta, onion, butter, salt, stock, Parmesan.

Make a somewhat firm polenta with half a pound of ground maize and a pint and a half of salted water, add a small onion cut up and fried in butter, and stir the polenta until it is sufficiently cooked. Then take it off the fire and arrange it by spoonsful in a large fireproof dish, and give each spoonful the shape and size of an egg. Place them one against the other, and when the first layer is done, pour over it some very good gravy or stock, and plenty of grated Parmesan. Arrange it thus layer by layer. Put it into the oven for twenty minutes, and serve very hot.

Boil one-half cup of corn-meal rather hard, and before removing from the fire add a piece of butter and a little grated cheese and mix well. Take it then by spoonfuls and let it fall onto a marble-top table, or a bread-pan which has been wet a little with cold water. These spoonfuls should form little balls about the size of a hen's egg. On each of these croquettes place a very thin slice of Gruyere cheese, so that the cheese will adhere to the corn-meal. Then allow
them to cool, and when cold dip into egg, then into bread crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.

Ingredients: 2 cups of Indian meal, 3 pints of cold water

Put the water on, and when it boils add salt. Then add the Indian meal, little by little, stirring all the time. Allow it to boil over a moderate fire for one-half hour, stirring constantly. When the meal has become quite stiff, take a wooden spoon and dip it into hot water, and with it detach the Indian meal from the side of the saucepan, then hold the saucepan for a moment over the hottest part of the fire, until the Indian meal has become detached from the bottom. Then turn it out onto the bread-board; it should come out whole in a mold. Let it stand a few moments to cool. Then with a wire cut it into slices
about the thickness of a finger. Place these slices on a hot platter in a layer; pour over them a good meat gravy and grated cheese; then put on another layer of the polenta, and add more gravy and cheese, and so on, until your polenta is used up.

Prepare the Indian meal as in the receipt for Polenta all Toscana.

Take four sausages (or two, if they are large), remove the skins, chop fine, then fry in butter. When they are a nice brown add one tablespoon of stock, and two tablespoons of tomato paste thinned with hot water (or if you like a corresponding amount of the tomato sauce).

Cook for fifteen minutes more. Let it stand a few moments to cool. Then with a wire cut it into slices about the thickness of a finger. Place these slices on a hot platter in a layer; Add the chopped sausages with their sauce and grated cheese; then put on another layer of the polenta, and add more sausages and cheese, and so on, until all polenta and sausages are used up.

Put one pinch of salt and one tablespoon of sugar into a cup of milk, and put it on to boil. As soon as it boils pour in, little by little, one-half scant cup of fine Indian meal, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Allow it to boil gently for twenty minutes.

Take it off the stove, add one level tablespoon of butter and the yolk of one egg and a little grated lemon-peel. Beat up well to mix the egg and butter. Then turn the mixture onto the bread-board, which has been dampened; spread it out to the thickness of a finger. Allow it to cool, then cut into squares or diamonds or little rounds, dip these into egg and then into the bread crumbs, and fry them in boiling lard, a few at a time. Sprinkle with sugar, and serve hot.

Ingredients: 2 cups of coarse Indian meal, 3/4 cup of raisins, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 3 teaspoons of granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons of butter

Mix the salt, sugar, and raisins with the Indian meal in a bowl, then pour in boiling water, a little at a time, and stir well with a wooden spoon until you have a stiff paste and no dry meal remains sticking to the bottom of the bowl.

Then take a cake-tin and grease it well with one-half of the butter and turn out the Indian meal into the pan. Even it out with the wooden spoon. Spread on the top of this the rest of the softened butter and cook in a slow oven until a
golden brown. Serve hot.

Ingredients: 3/4 of a cup of yellow Indian meal (fine), 3 cups of water

Put the water into a granite or iron saucepan, add salt. When it
begins to boil add the Indian meal, little by little. Keep stirring
constantly as you pour it in, to prevent lumps. Boil for one-half
hour, stirring constantly over a moderate fire. If desired, a little
more water may be added if preferred not so thick. Add grated cheese
and butter.