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Fish Macaroni
Take two pounds of cod, parboil it, cut it into small pieces, and remove all bones and skin. Add two sticks of macaroni, previously boiled, and broken into one-inch pieces, two ounces of grated cheese, and pepper and salt to taste. Mix all well together, and put into a fireproof dish. Grate some cheese over it, and put some bread-crumbs on top, with a few dabs of butter. Bake in a moderate oven until it turns brown, which will be in about fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 4d.
A plain Victorian fish gratin: everything is cooked before it goes in the dish, so the oven is only there to melt the cheese and brown the crumbs. Two details need attention — the macaroni quantity, and the fact that no sauce is called for at all.
- "Two sticks of macaroni"Macaroni was then commonly sold in long straight tubes, and "stick" here probably means one of those lengths rather than any fixed measure. Two of them would barely register against two pounds of fish; 4 to 6 oz of dry macaroni is a reasonable modern reading, but the original figure is genuinely ambiguous and may reflect a thinner, longer product than anything now on the shelf.
- No sauce is specifiedAs written the dish is bound only by cheese and butter, which gives a dry, crumbly bake. A cup or so of béchamel stirred through before it goes in the dish brings it in line with what a modern eater expects of baked macaroni, without changing anything else.
- Parboiling the codFour to five minutes in barely simmering salted water is enough — the fish should just turn opaque and begin to flake. It finishes in the oven, and cod that has been fully poached first will break down to threads.
- Moderate ovenAround 350F. Fifteen minutes at that heat will heat the dish through but may not colour it; if the top is still pale, finish under the grill rather than leaving it longer and drying the fish out.
- The cheeseThe recipe says only "grated cheese," which in a Victorian savoury bake would usually be Parmesan or a hard, dry English cheese. A mature Cheddar works and is more assertive; Parmesan browns better on top.
- SeasoningCod, boiled macaroni and breadcrumbs are all bland, and the recipe leans entirely on pepper and salt. Season the fish after parboiling and taste the mixture in the bowl, since there is no later chance to adjust.
- Yield and the price noteTwo pounds of fish makes four generous or six modest servings. The "probable cost, 1s. 4d." is for the whole dish, as with the costings given throughout the book.
Recipes like this one belong to the Victorian habit of turning cooked fish into a second, hotter meal — the same impulse behind fish pie, fish cakes and kedgeree. Macaroni had been in English cookery books since the eighteenth century, first as a genteel Italian novelty served with cheese and cream, and later as a cheap, keeping, dry-goods staple that stretched expensive protein. Cod was a mainstay of the British fish trade, and the recipe as written starts from two pounds of fresh cod, parboiled by the cook, rather than from a leftover. The costing in pence at the end is characteristic of the book, which priced its dishes so a cook could see what a meal would come to.