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Macaroni, with Tomatoes
Boil four ounces of macaroni (see MACARONI BOILED), but in veal broth instead of water. Skin four fine fresh mutton kidneys, fry them lightly in butter, lift them from the stewpan, and mince them finely. Make a gravy in the same pan, adding a dessert-spoonful of brown flour, half a pint of rich stock, a couple of shallots, minced, and a pinch of cayenne. Stew the minced kidneys in this gravy for ten minutes, when part of the macaroni, which should have been kept warm, may be mixed and tossed in the pan for a few minutes to absorb the liquid. Serve turned out on a hot dish, arrange the remainder of the macaroni on the top, and pour hot tomato sauce over. Time, one hour to prepare. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for two persons.
The title undersells the dish: this is really a kidney ragout bound with macaroni and finished with tomato sauce. The hinge is the kidneys, which need brief, gentle cooking and no more.
- Mutton kidneysBuy lamb kidneys, which are the same organ from a younger animal and much milder; they are smaller, so allow six to eight in place of the four mutton kidneys. Halve them, snip out the white core and gristle before frying.
- Don't overcook themKidney turns grainy and hard once it passes medium. Frying and then stewing ten minutes in gravy is the outer limit — keep the frying to a fast colouring only, and take the pan off as soon as the mince is heated through.
- Brown flourPlain flour toasted dry in a pan over low heat until it smells nutty and turns the colour of pale sand. Victorian kitchens kept a jar of it for thickening brown sauces; ordinary flour cooked into the butter left in the pan does the same work.
- MeasuresA dessert-spoonful is about two teaspoons. Half an imperial pint of stock is 10 fl oz, a shade under a cup and a quarter.
- Veal brothBoiling the macaroni in broth rather than water is the point of the dish and worth keeping; a light unsalted chicken or veal stock, thinned with water if strong, gives the same effect. Salt at the end, since the stock reduces slightly.
- ShallotsTwo shallots minced and added raw with the stock may still be firm after ten minutes. Soften them in the pan fat before the flour goes in.
- The macaroniIn this period macaroni meant long tubes, boiled until quite soft. Modern short-cut macaroni works; cook it a minute short of done, since it finishes in the pan absorbing gravy.
- Tomato sauceA plain reduced tomato sauce, not a herbed Italian-style one; period English tomato sauces tend to be little more than tomatoes, stock and butter passed through a sieve. It should be hot when it goes over, or it flattens the dish.
- Yield"Sufficient for two persons" reflects Victorian service with other courses following. As a single main dish the quantities are modest and will stretch to three at a push.
Cassell's belongs to the era when macaroni had been thoroughly naturalised into British cooking but had not yet become Italian food in the modern sense: it was treated as a starch to be simmered in broth and dressed with whatever gravy the kitchen had going, much as rice or barley might be. Tomato sauce is named here as the distinguishing feature of the dish. The kidneys reflect the other half of the book's outlook — a household economy in which offal was cheap, plentiful and expected at breakfast and supper alike, and in which a shilling and sixpence bought a full dish for two. The combination looks eccentric now mainly because both halves of it have drifted: macaroni went one way into Italian cooking, kidneys largely out of the British kitchen altogether.