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NOUILLES, ROLLED (a German recipe)
Roll out some nouilles pastry as thin as possible, then, instead of cutting it into threads as before directed (see NOUILLES), cut it into rounds about the size of a crown-piece, sprinkle upon each a little finely-minced ham, mixed with parsley, and any seasoning that may be wished, and roll it up. Put the rolls in a stewpan, pour over them a little broth, and let them simmer very gently for an hour. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
This is a fresh egg-pasta dough, filled and rolled — closer to a small filled dumpling than to a noodle. Nearly everything here works as written except the cooking time.
- Cut an hour down to minutesThinly rolled fresh egg pasta wrapped round minced ham needs only a few minutes of gentle simmering, not an hour. A full hour will leave the rolls very soft and the broth starchy.
- A crown-pieceThe Victorian crown was about 1.5 inches (38 mm) across. Cut rounds of that size with a plain cutter or a small glass.
- Nouilles pastryThe dough is the egg noodle paste cross-referenced under NOUILLES; the recipe gives no proportions here. A workable modern equivalent is about 2 cups (250 g) flour, 3 egg yolks plus 1 whole egg and a pinch of salt, worked stiff and rested 30 minutes before rolling. Rest is what makes it roll thin without springing back.
- Sealing the rollsThe original assumes the dough is tacky enough to stick to itself. Brush the far edge with a little beaten egg or water and press firmly, or the filling will escape into the broth.
- Stewpan and brothA stewpan is a wide, straight-sided saucepan. Use enough well-flavoured stock to come halfway up the rolls in a single layer — crowding makes them stick together.
- Ham and seasoningUse cooked ham, minced fine, with flat-leaf parsley; a scrape of nutmeg and black pepper suits it. Salt lightly, since the ham and the broth both carry salt.
- Yield and serving"Four or five persons" means as a light course or garnish, not a main dish. Serve the rolls in a little of their cooking broth, or lifted out and moistened with butter.
Nouilles is simply the French word for noodles, borrowed from the German Nudel, and its appearance in an English cookery dictionary shows how thoroughly the Victorian kitchen received continental cooking through a French filter — even a dish labelled "a German recipe" is given a French name. Cassell's treats fresh egg noodle paste as a basic preparation, cross-referenced under NOUILLES, from which cooks were expected to make threads for soup or, as here, small filled rolls. The filling of minced ham with parsley belongs to the same thrifty logic as croquettes and rissoles that runs through the book: a few ounces of cooked meat, extended with pastry and broth, feeding five for sixpence. Dishes of this shape are found across the German-speaking lands and their neighbours under many names, and the family resemblance to Swabian Maultaschen and to Italian and Polish filled pastas is close, though this particular recipe belongs to no one tradition in a documented way.