Macaroni

“ RECIPES.
Home-Made Macaroni.—To four cupfuls of flour, add one egg well beaten, and enough water to make a dough that can be rolled. Roll thin on a breadboard and cut into strips. Dry in the sun. The best arrangement for this purpose is a wooden frame to which a square of cheese-cloth has been tightly tacked, upon which the macaroni may be laid in such a way as not to touch, and afterwards covered with a cheese-cloth to keep off the dust during the drying. ”

“ Simmer the macaroni half an hour in a pint of the milk.
Stir in the butter and salt. Cover the saucepan, and take from the fire, letting it stand covered while you make a custard of the rest of the milk, the eggs and sugar. Chop the almonds, adding rose-water to keep them from oiling. When the macaroni is nearly cold, put into the custard; stir up well, but break it as little [253] as possible; put in nutmeg, bitter-almond extract ”

“ When it is scalding hot, salt to taste; add half a table-spoonful of butter, then the macaroni, and heat together slowly. They should not boil. Meanwhile put the reserved cream into a small saucepan. Heat, stir in the table-spoonful of butter, pepper and parsley; the flour, wet with cold milk, the grated cheese, and when this is dissolved, the beaten egg. Pour the macaroni into a neat baking-dish, cover with the cheese mixture. Strew the top with very fine bread-crumbs, and brown quickly on the upper grating of a hot oven. ”

“ Break the macaroni into inch lengths and cook it until it is tender in the 3 quarts of boiling water to which 3 teaspoonfuls of salt has been added. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, the 1 teaspoonful of salt, the pepper, and the paprika, stir until smooth, and then gradually add the milk, which should be hot. Allow to cook until it thickens. Arrange the cooked macaroni in layers, pouring the sauce and sprinkling salt and cheese over each layer. Then cover the top layer with the crumbs and bake the food in a moderate oven for one half hour. Serve hot. ”

“ In other words, macaroni is both bread and meat. It is not merely a side-dish, as many American and English housewives fancy, but a complete meal in itself, although, owing to the mildness of its Flavor, it is generally relished more when cooked with tomatoes, or a little chopped meat, or, better still, some cheese or butter or both, because, like bread, macaroni [323] is deficient in fat, some of which it needs to make a dish well balanced as to nutritive ingredients. ”

“ MACARONI GRATIN. Where so ready all nature its cookery yields,
Macaroni au Parmesan grows in the fields.
Moore.
Lay fried bread pretty closely round a dish; boil your macaroni in the usual way, and pour it into the dish; smooth it all over, and strew breadcrumbs on it, then a pretty thick layer of grated Parmesan cheese; drop a little melted butter on it, and put it in the oven to brown.
TRUFFLES. What will not Luxury taste? Earth, sea and air
Are daily ransacked for the bill of fare. ”

“ Or (omitting the cheese) you may dress it with rich gravy of roast meat.
For Sweet Macaroni.—Having boiled it in milk instead of water, drain it, and mix with it powdered mace and nutmeg, with butter, sugar, and rose or peach-water. Macaroni (like vermicelli) has in itself no taste, but is only made palatable by the manner of dressing it. Good soup is rather weakened than improved by the addition of macaroni.
COMMON OMELET.— Beat five eggs till very light and thick. Stir gradually into the pan of eggs four table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Thin the batter with a large tea-cup of milk. ”

“ It is the street of the very poor, but one is struck by the excellent diet of these same very poor. They eat as a staple roasted artichokes—a great delicacy with us. They cook macaroni with tomatoes in huge iron kettles over charcoal fires, and sell it by the plateful to their customers, often hauling it out of the kettles with their hands, like a sailor’s hornpipe, pinching off the macaroni if it lengthens too much, and blowing on their fingers to cool them. They have roasted chestnuts, fried fish, boiled eggs, and long loops of crisp Italian bread strung on a stake. ”

“ Blanch four ounces of macaroni and drain as directed, then put it in a saucepan with two ounces of butter, salt, pepper, a little grated nutmeg, and set on the fire; stir till the butter is melted, and then add grated cheese as directed for au gratin, and half a pint of gravy; stir and mix for about ten minutes, and serve. Macaroni requires much butter; the quantity of cheese is according to taste; some put weight for weight of macaroni, butter, and cheese. It is also prepared in a mould (en timbale) for chartreuse; it is macaroni Napolitaine, [372] when every thing is mixed with it ”

“ Prepare a garnish of macaroni cohered with butter and grated Parmesan, and add thereto four tablespoonfuls of a crayfish cullis per four oz. of macaroni; three crayfishes’ tails for each person, and two-thirds of the pieces of amourettes. Toss well, in order to thoroughly mix the whole; dish in a timbale; cover the macaroni with what remains of the pieces of amourettes, and cover them slightly with crayfish cullis. ”

“ I have always been fond of highly-seasoned, rich dishes, such as macaroni prepared by a skilful Neapolitan cook, the olla-podrida of the Spaniards, the glutinous codfish from Newfoundland, game with a strong flavour, and cheese the perfect state of which is attained when the tiny animaculae formed from its very essence begin to shew signs of life. As for women, I have always found the odour of my beloved ones exceeding pleasant. ”

“ A boiled sole is all very well when one is just convalescent, but in robust health we demand the delights of egg and bread-crumb, which are after all only the vehicle for the appetizing grease. Plain boiled macaroni may pass muster in the unsophisticated nursery, but in the pampered dining-room it requires the aid of toasted parmesan. Good modern cookery is the practical result of centuries of experience in this direction; the final flower of ages of evolution, devoted to the equalization of flavors in all human food. ”

“ Method.—Line a buttered mould with the paste rolled out to a moderate thickness, and fill it with alternate layers of the macaroni, cut into small pieces, salsify, and artichokes, and over each layer scatter a few slices of champignons, a little grated cheese, a few drops of lemon-juice, and season with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and nutmeg. ”

“ The Naples, or pipe-macaroni, is the most useful for families, and the Genoa, or twisted, for high-class dishes. The English taste is in favour of macaroni boiled soft, and in order to make it so, many cooks soak it. But this is not correct, and it is not at all necessary to soak macaroni. If kept boiling in sufficient water, the macaroni requires no attention—ebullition prevents it sticking to the saucepan.
Although we give several ways of finishing macaroni, it is excellent when merely boiled in water with salt, as in the first recipe, eaten as an accompaniment to meat, or with stewed fruit. ”

“ The preparation is chiefly by the hand: machines and moulds are very little used. They also prepared for us a dish of the most excellent macaroni, regretting, however, that at that moment they had not even a single dish of the very best kind, which could not be made out of Girgenti, nor indeed, out of their house. What they did dress for me appeared to me to be unequalled in whiteness and tenderness.
By leading us once more to the heights and to the most glorious points of view, our guide contrived to appease the restlessness which during the evening kept us constantly out-of-doors. ”