All these pastes should be of a yellowish tint (by no means white as one sees them when they are of inferior quality); they should also be quite fresh, as they contract a most unpleasant flavour from being too long stored. The Naples vermicelli, which is much larger than any other, may be dressed like maccaroni: by many persons it is also preferred to the smaller varieties for serving in soup.
TO BOIL MACCARONI.
We have always found the continental mode of dressing maccaroni the best. English cooks sometimes soak it in milk and water for an hour or more, before it is boiled, that the pipes may be swollen to the utmost, but this is apt to render it pulpy, though its appearance may be improved by it. Drop it lightly, and by degrees, into a large pan of fast-boiling water, into which a little salt, and a bit of butter the size of a walnut, have previously been thrown, and of which the boiling should not be stopped by the addition of the maccaroni. In about three-quarters of an hour the Naples maccaroni will be sufficiently tender: every kind should always be perfectly cooked, for otherwise it will prove very indigestible, but the pipes of that commonly served should remain entire. Pour it into a large cullender, and drain the water well from it. It should be very softly boiled after the first minute or two.
Time of boiling:—Naples maccaroni, about 3/4 hour; Genoa, nearly or quite 1 hour; macaroncini, 20 to 25 minutes; cut maccaroni, 10 minutes; Naples vermicelli (in water), about 20 minutes; longer in soup, or milk.
RIBBON MACCARONI.[[139]]
[139]. The best ribbon-maccaroni which we have ever had, was from Mr. Cobbett’s, 18, Pall Mall. It is rather higher in price than the pipe maccaroni, but swells so much in the boiling that a large quantity of it is not required for a dish. We ought to add that Mr. Cobbett’s is not a professedly cheap house, but that all he supplies is of excellent quality.
This kind of maccaroni, though more delicate in flavour and much more quickly boiled than the pipe maccaroni, is far less frequently seen at English tables; yet it is extremely good in many simple forms and very wholesome, therefore well suited to invalids and children as well as to persons in health. Drop it gradually into plenty of boiling water, and turn it over occasionally that it may be equally done. Drain it thoroughly when it is perfectly tender, and serve it quickly either quite plain, to be eaten instead of vegetables or rice; or with a compote of fruit; or with sugar and cinnamon, or lemon juice; or prepared in any of the modes indicated for the Naples maccaroni.
To be boiled 15 to 18 minutes.
DRESSED MACCARONI.
After careful and repeated trial of different modes of dressing various kinds of maccaroni, we find that in preparing them with Parmesan cheese, unmixed with any of a more mellow nature, there is always a chance of failure, from its tendency to gather into lumps; we would therefore recommend the inexperienced reader to substitute for it in part, at least, any finely flavoured English cheese; and the better to ensure its blending smoothly with the other ingredients (when neither white, nor any other thickened sauce is used with it), to dissolve the butter, and to stir to it a small teaspoonful of flour, before any liquid is added, then carefully to mix with it the cream or gravy, as directed for Sauce Tournée, Chapter [V.], and to give this a boil before the maccaroni and cheese are added: if gently tossed as these become hot, the whole will be smooth, and the cheese will adhere properly to the paste. Four ounces of pipe maccaroni is sufficient for a small dish, but from six to eight should be prepared for a family party where it is liked. The common English mode of dressing it is with grated cheese, butter, and cream, or milk. French cooks substitute generally a spoonful or two of very strong rich jellied gravy for the cream; and the Italians, amongst their many other modes of serving it, toss it in rich brown gravy, with sufficient grated cheese to flavour the whole strongly; they send it to table also simply laid into a good Espagnole or brown gravy (that drawn from the stufato,[[140]] for example), accompanied by a plate of grated cheese. Another, and an easy mode of dressing it is to boil and drain it well, and to put it into a deep dish, strewing grated cheese on every layer, and adding bits of fresh butter to it. The top, in this case, should be covered with a layer of fine bread-crumbs, mixed with grated cheese; these should be moistened plentifully with clarified butter, and colour given to them in the oven, or before the fire; the crumbs may be omitted, and a layer of cheese substituted for them. An excellent preparation of maccaroni may be made with any well-flavoured, dry white cheese, which can be grated easily, at much less cost than with the Parmesan, which is expensive, and in the country not always procurable: and we think that the brown gravy and a seasoning of cayenne are great improvements to it.