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Ham and Macaroni
Boil half a pound of macaroni in slightly salted water for about an hour. Whilst it is boiling mince finely a quarter of a pound of gammon of bacon, and grate a quarter of a pound of Parmesan or other cheese. Drain the macaroni, and fill a plain mould or cake-tin with alternate layers of macaroni, ham, and cheese, seasoning each layer with pepper and salt. Beat two eggs with a little milk. Melt an ounce of butter, throw it over the macaroni, and, lastly, pour the eggs and milk over all. Bake for half an hour in a moderate oven. Tie a napkin round the tin, and send to table without turning it out.
A straightforward baked macaroni, but the timings belong to an era of hard, unpolished dried pasta and a very different idea of doneness.
- The hour of boilingDried macaroni of the period was thicker-walled and dried harder than modern pasta, and long boiling was usual, though an hour sits at the outer end even for the time. Modern dried macaroni needs 6-8 minutes, and here should be drained a shade under al dente since it goes on to bake for another half hour.
- Moderate oven350F (175C). The macaroni is already cooked; the bake is essentially to set the custard and melt the cheese (but see the note on raw gammon below).
- Gammon of baconGammon is the cured hind leg — the same cut as ham, sold raw. Use about 4 oz of cooked ham or a thick slice of gammon, finely chopped; if raw, render it in a dry pan first, as thirty minutes will not cook it reliably in the middle of a packed mould.
- Parmesan or other cheeseFour ounces grated. Parmesan gives salt and savour but little stretch; a mix of Parmesan and a firm Cheddar or Gruyère behaves better in layers.
- Salt with careBetween the cured meat, the Parmesan and the salted cooking water, the seasoning of each layer needs a light hand. Pepper freely, salt barely.
- The egg and milkTwo eggs with "a little milk" is vague; about 1/2 cup (4 fl oz) gives enough liquid to bind without flooding the mould. Pour it slowly so it works down between the layers rather than sitting on top.
- Mould and napkinA plain mould or cake tin means a straight-sided tin, roughly 6-7 inches; a souffle dish or small loaf tin does the same job. It is sent to table in the tin with a napkin tied round it, presumably because the set is too soft to unmould -- an ordinary baking dish is no loss.
- YieldServes four as a light main course, six as a side.
Macaroni reached English cookery books as a luxury import and stayed slightly foreign for a long time: eighteenth-century recipes treat it as an Italian curiosity, and by the mid-nineteenth century it is often said to have found two respectable forms — sweet, boiled in milk as a pudding, and savoury, baked with cheese — though the division is tidier in retrospect than in practice. Victorian household cookery is full of dishes like this one: an inexpensive stretch of a small piece of cured pork and a little hard cheese into something substantial enough to send to table. The instruction to serve it in its tin wrapped in a napkin is a period convention for dishes too fragile to turn out, and the same trick appears in Victorian books for boiled puddings and savoury moulds alike.