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Macaroni in Scallop Shells
Boil eight ounces of macaroni from twenty-five to thirty minutes in the usual way, but throw it into cold water, then drain, and cut into half-inch lengths. Put a quarter of a pound of butter into a stewpan, stir in a little flour, and add a small cup of rich gravy, with a little grated nutmeg, a salt-spoonful of salt, and one of pepper. Toss the macaroni with two or three ounces of grated Parmesan into the sauce, shake and mix it well over the fire, then fill scallop shells, or any fancy shapes, with the mixture, which cover with more grated cheese, run clarified butter or spread sardine butter over the top, and bake quickly, or brown before the fire.
A late-Victorian macaroni cheese dressed up for individual service. Most of it translates directly; the boiling time and the butter are the two things to reconsider.
- Cooking the macaroniTwenty-five to thirty minutes reflects the coarse, thick-walled macaroni of the period, which was often dried very hard. Modern dried pasta wants 8-12 minutes, and because it goes back over the heat in the sauce and then under a fierce top heat, stop it a minute short of al dente.
- The cold-water plungeThe cold-water plunge \ta the pasta so it can be cut cleanly into half-inch lengths; it also rinses off surface starch, so the sauce may not cling as well — worth knowing if you like a glossier bind.
- A quarter pound of butterFour ounces of butter to eight ounces of macaroni is generous even by Victorian standards, and the recipe adds clarified or sardine butter on top as well. Two ounces makes a roux ample for this quantity without the dish breaking into oil under the grill.
- Rich gravyRich gravy — this means well-reduced brown meat stock or the strained juices from a roast, not flour-thickened supermarket gravy. 'A small cup' is imprecise; a Victorian teacupful is on the order of 4-6 fl oz. Good veal or beef stock reduced by half gives the right savour; the dish is deliberately meaty rather than milky.
- A salt-spoonfulThe salt-spoon was a standard piece of Victorian table silver holding about a quarter teaspoon. Use that for the salt and the same for the pepper, then taste — Parmesan and reduced stock both bring their own salt.
- Sardine butterButter pounded with boned, skinned sardines and passed through a sieve, a common Victorian savoury spread. Anchovy butter or mashed anchovy fillets worked into softened butter give the same salty-fishy top note if you are not making it from scratch.
- Scallop shellsScallop shells — shells were commonly used as oven-to-table dishes for such savouries. Individual gratin dishes or 4 oz ramekins do the same job.
- Bake quickly, or brown before the fireBake quickly, or brown before the fire — 'quickly' implies a hot oven, somewhere around 425F, and only long enough to brown the top.
Macaroni had been an English luxury since the eighteenth century, when young men returning from the Grand Tour brought back a taste for it — traditionally said to be the source of the older sense of the word, denoting an over-dressed young man.