It was time for them to be cooked now, Marta declared, and she put on water to boil with a tea-spoonful of salt in it; then she grated about a table-spoonful of cheese, and when the water was fast boiling dropped the “noodles” into it. She knew no other name than this for both the balls and the ribbons. They were to boil a quarter of an hour, she said, and every now and then she carefully stirred them up with a fork _not so as to break them_, but to keep them separate. She put a large table-spoonful of butter in a little saucepan and set it to get hot. When the noodles were strained off, the grated cheese was sprinkled over them with a little pepper and salt, then the butter was put to get _boiling hot_, and immediately poured over them. They were again stirred up with the fork, and, when the butter was well through them, Marta pronounced them ready; it was of course quite a small dish, but Molly told Marta if it proved half as good as it was pretty, she would be called on to make it very often. It did not belie its appearance. “Marta, this is quite a discovery! I wonder if you can make any more German dainties?” Marta smilingly said she knew only one or two really nice things. “Then you shall make them; but don’t you see, you silly girl, that when you knew how to fry those little balls you knew how to fry many other things?” “I see it now, but I did not before. I thought everything else had to be done in a different way in a flat pan.” “Well, when you make these ribbon noodles again, you will have to take the whole of the paste made from the egg, and double the butter dressing; for I’m sure Mr. Bishop will be delighted with them.” In the afternoon, as the irons were on the stove, Molly put the beef in the oven and made what Soyer calls a “roast-braise.” She took a small earthen crock or pan and put into it a large onion, a small carrot and turnip, two sprigs of parsley and a bay leaf; on these she laid some fat pork shaved, and on that the meat beef neatly skewered and tied. Over this meat she put a thin layer of fat pork, and over all a cup of water and a flour and water paste, so that the steam could not escape. This was to be left in the oven, which was not allowed to get very hot for the first two and a half hours,—just hot enough to keep the roast simmering. FOOTNOTE: [2] An equal weight of almond paste may be used. CHAPTER XXVI. FRIED POTATOES—POLKA SAUCE—CLEARING GRAVY OF FAT—A VARIETY OF CAKES FROM ONE RECIPE.