ROUND THE TABLE

Polenta is a sort of bouillie or porridge made of Indian corn flour, water and salt. The proper way to make it is to take a handful of the flour, and let it drop gradu- ally into a saucepan containing boiling water and salt, stirring all the time, and continuing to stir until the flour is cooked, and the polenta acquires the consistency of thick pea-soup. You must not, however, keep on dropping the flour in •, a very small quantity is sufficient to make very thick polenta — certainly not more than one handful or less to a pint of water.

This preparation is very good food for children, and it is made more attractive by a large piece of butter being put into the water when making the polenta, and grated Parmesan cheese being either incorporated in it or served over it. The addition of butter and cheese, however, is seldom resorted to by the poorer classes, for in the south of Italy, at any rate, butter is to a poor man as are truffles unto a London “ cabby.” Some season it occasionally with a cheese of the country, which quite belies the saying “ as different as chalk from cheese.” It is strange that the same country should produce the very best cheese, at least for cooking purposes, and also the very worst in existence.

The poor people make a paste with the flour, hot water, and a little salt ; they fashion it into small loaves, in which they stick a few raisins, and then bake them in the oven, if they have one, or under hot wood ashes. These loaves will keep for a week or ten days, and are very eat- able— if you have nothing else to eat.

A more artistic form of this species of food is this :

Make a good thick polenta, adding butter and cheese to it in the process of making. Pour it into a dish, or on a marble slab, and when cold it will be of the con-