Break half a pound of macaroni into pieces an inch or two long; cook it in boiling water, enough to cover it well; put in a good teaspoonful of salt; let it boil about twenty minutes. Drain it well and then put a layer in the bottom of a well-buttered pudding-dish; upon this some grated cheese and small pieces of butter, a bit of salt, then more macaroni, and so on, filling the dish; sprinkle the top layer with a thick layer of cracker crumbs. Pour over the whole a teacupful of cream or milk. Set it in the oven and bake half an hour. It should be nicely browned on top. Serve in the same dish in which it was baked with a clean napkin pinned around it.
To a piece of butter as large as an egg stirred until soft; add three well-beaten eggs, a pinch of salt and half a teacupful of sour cream. Stir well together, then add enough flour to make a very thick batter. Drop a spoonful of this into boiling water. Cook until the puffs rise to the surface. Dish them hot with melted butter turned over them. Nice accompaniment to a meat dinner as a side-dish--similar to plain macaroni.
If you make the noodles at home, use two eggs for the dough; if you buy macaroni use one-quarter of a pound, cut up and boil in salt water; boil about fifteen minutes; drain off the water and let cold water run through them; grate a cup of cheese; melt a piece of fresh butter, about the size of an egg, in a saucepan, stir in a heaping tablespoon of flour, add gradually to this a pint of rich milk, stirring constantly; take from the fire as it thickens. Butter a pudding dish, lay in a layer of noodles, then cheese, then sauce, then begin with noodles again until all is used up. Sprinkle cheese on top, a few cracker crumbs and flakes of butter here and there. Bake until brown.
Boil one-quarter of a pound of macaroni in plenty of hot water, salted, until tender; put half a pint of milk in a double boiler, and when it boils stir into it a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour. Add two tablespoonfuls of cream, a little white and cayenne pepper; salt to taste, and from one-quarter to one-half a pound of grated cheese, according to taste. Drain and dish the macaroni; pour the boiling sauce over it and serve immediately.
