Casserole of Rice

Instructions

1. Proceed exactly as for Gabrielle's pudding (see Chapter XXI.), but substitute good veal broth or stock for the milk, and add a couple of ounces more of butter.
2. Fill the casserole, when it is emptied, with a rich mince or fricassee, or with stewed oysters in a bechamel sauce.
3. It must have a quick oven to colour, without too much drying it.
4. The rice for it must be boiled sufficiently tender to be crushed easily to a smooth paste, and it must be mashed with a strong wooden spoon against the sides of the stewpan until all the grains are broken.
5. It may then, when cool, be made like a raised pie with the hands, and decorated with a design formed on it with a carrot cut into a point like a graver.
6. For a large casserole, a pound of rice and a quart of gravy will be required.
7. A bit of bread is sometimes used in filling the mould, cut to the shape, and occupying nearly half the inside, but always so as to leave a thick and compact crust in every part.
8. Part of the rice which is scooped from the inside is sometimes mixed with the mince, or other preparation, with which the casserole is filled.
9. Note: French cooks make a very troublesome and elaborate affair of this dish, putting to the rice to make it "mellow" a great deal of pot-top fat, slices of fat ham, &c., which must afterwards be well drained off, or picked out from it; but the dish, made as directed above, will be found excellent eating, and of very elegant appearance, if it be moulded in a tasteful shape.