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Macaroni Nudels, to Boil
To boil nudels, throw them into boiling water, slightly salted; from ten to fifteen minutes will be long enough. Strain, and lay them on a shallow, well-buttered dish, with bits of butter and grated Parmesan cheese in alternate layers, finishing with the cheese. Brown lightly in the oven, or put the nudels before the fire, and brown with a salamander. Tape or broad nudels are best for this dish. Sufficient, half a pound of nudels to a quarter of a pound of cheese.
A plain baked noodle dish of the sort Cassell's filed under macaroni: boiled egg noodles layered with butter and Parmesan and browned. The only real decisions are the noodle and the browning.
- What "nudels" areNudeln is simply the German word for noodles — flat egg pasta, cut into ribbons. "Tape or broad nudels" means a wide ribbon: pappardelle, mafaldine, or a broad German Bandnudeln will all do. Modern dried egg noodles work directly.
- Cooking timeTen to fifteen minutes suggests thicker noodles than modern dried pasta. Dried commercial pasta of the same width needs roughly 7-10 minutes, and fresh ribbons two or three; go by the package and stop while there is still a little bite, since the dish then goes into the oven.
- Salt the water properly"Slightly salted" is understated by current standards. Around a tablespoon of salt per four quarts seasons the noodles from within, which matters here because the only other seasoning is the cheese.
- Drain, do not rinseStrain and use the noodles hot and still slightly damp. Rinsing washes off the surface starch that helps the butter and cheese cling, and cold noodles will not melt the butter as they are layered.
- BrowningA salamander was an iron plate heated red and held over the surface. The modern equivalent is the broiler: two or three minutes with the dish about six inches from the element. In the oven proper, 425F for 10-15 minutes gives the same effect more slowly.
- Proportions and yieldHalf a pound of noodles to a quarter pound of Parmesan is a generous ratio — roughly a cup to a cup and a half of grated cheese, depending how finely it is grated. It serves four as a side or two or three as a main. Grate the cheese yourself; pre-grated Parmesan usually carries an anti-caking agent such as starch or cellulose and browns unevenly.
- ButterNo quantity is given. Two to three ounces, cut into small bits and scattered between the layers, is in keeping; the dish is meant to be rich, and there is no sauce or liquid other than what the butter and cheese provide.
Cassell's places this under macaroni because in nineteenth-century English cookbooks "macaroni" served as a loose heading for Italian and Continental pastes generally, with nudels, vermicelli and lasagne treated as variations on the theme. The spelling points to German and Austrian cookery, where Nudeln — flour-and-egg dough rolled thin and cut into ribbons — were a staple, though how the dish reached the English kitchen is not something the spelling alone can settle. The finish is pure period technique: alternate layers of butter and grated Parmesan glazed under a salamander, the heated iron tool that gave its name to the broiler function still labelled that way on some professional equipment. The result relies on butter and hard cheese alone for richness, without a béchamel.