Omaha daily bee., 1892-01-10
DR.. Cullimore, ocu'ist, Bee building.
PALATABLE CORN.

Several Recipes From the Cooking Artists
of Italy.
Most people in this country cherish
the conceit that the use OF Indian corn
for human food Is substantially confined
to he United States, says the New York
Sun; yet, if they were to see the inn
mense, the incompatible, fields of
maize which occupy all the land in
southern Hungary, in Servia, in Bull
garia and in Roumania, they would IN
Tess that they had never boheld such eX.
t%ensive plantations of maize in all
North America. We are also proud
of our ways of cooking this grain
and whoever has had the good fortune
to taste that admirable sort of bead
which they call pone in southern Nj Try
land. Virginia and North Carolina will
agree hat the culinary artists of those
regions know how to make from corn
meal what the Lynchburg News justly
describes as lone of the most delicious
and substantial dishes in the world"
Nevertheless. a dish equally delicious
and equally delicate is made of corn
meal in Italy and is in universal use
there. Its ommon name is polenta, and
If our friend at Lynchburg should chance
to partake of it at Milan or at Naples, he
would admit it deserves quite as much
plulSo as III us enthusiasm ne DCSGOWS
upon the Virginia pones.
For the information of our readers we
have obtained recipes for the making of
polenua from two Italian culinary artists
and here is one of them kindly furnished
by Signor Brignoli of the Fifth Avenue:
The water must be boiling, Put in
salt enough to flavor, and add Indian
meal slowly, taking care that it con-
talns no Jumps. Let the whole become
quite thick and stir it constantly to pre-
vent burning. 1t must boil at least fiji
teen minutes"
This is simple enough, but the pro-
duct is pretty sure to be good; and the
reader will notice that it is not so very
different from a Yankee hasty pudding.
Signor Morello of Twenty-ninth street
employs both wheaton flour and corn
meal in making polenta; and this is the
way:
THE meal should be of the yellow
kind. Put the wheaton flour into boil
ing water, sti ring it thoroughly, and
then put in an equal quantity of yellow
corn meal. Care must be taken to keep
Jumps from forming. The polenta
should be thick and fairly firm. A sauce
frequently made for it is OF finely chop
ped onions boiled in olive Oil. Tomato
sauce may also be used. In serving
game and especially birds, slices of
po.enta soaked in gravy are sometimes
employed instead of toast as a garnish.
Polenta may also be fried in slices, like
ho.niny."
Now we come to the receips OF the Re
del Cuochi, u standard Italian book,
which reveals a thousand secrets of tho
art of arts, that is to say, the art of cook
ing,
Make a fry of olive oil and onions;
add to it tomato juice or preserved toma-
toes. Salt as much water as you find
necessary, and when hot, pour it upon
the fry. Continue TO heat it until it
boils. and then drop in corn meal letting
it fall little by little while you stir il
with n ladle, so that it may not form
Jumps. For n quart of water a quarter
OF a pound Of meal will suffice. As soon
as the polenta is cooked, dish it up and
serve with grated cheese"
AS our readers will observe, this is a
rather complex form of the dish in ques-
ton, but here is II that is simplicity
itself.
"Polenta is also made by boiling vel
low corn meal with suited water merely,
that is to say, without the chopped
onions fried in oil; but in that case it
must be seasoned with butter and grated
cheese before taking it off the fire."
From the same instructive manual we
take another recipe which provides for
a kind of polenta that is more highly
seasoned, and adapted, perhaps, for
more distinguished occasions:
Put two ounces of yellow meal to boil
in three quarts Of milk with n little
pinch of salt. When the polenta Is half
cooked, remove it from tho fire, and add
six yolks of eggs well beaten, with II
pinch Of powdered cinnamon. Add be-
sides an ounce of butter and half ain ounce
of powdered crackers. Work the whole
into II paste and finish cooking in n but
tered stamp with fire above and below.
AS soon as the surface has taken on n
handsome golden color, serve it On tho
table"
We presume that with these various
recipes our housekeeping and artistic
readers will find themsei yes enabled to
furnish n new and most excellent prep
aration of corn meal. II they succeed
as we'll with it as the cooks We have
sometimes CHANGED upon in Italy, they
will thank us for the information we
have now supplied.