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Nouilles, with Ham
Prepare some nouilles in the manner already described. Simmer for six minutes, drain, and dry them; put them into a saucepan, with a pint and a half of boiling gravy, one ounce of fresh butter, three ounces of boiled ham (fat and lean together cut into dice), and two ounces of grated Parmesan, or, if preferred, any other cheese which is not strong in flavour. Mix lightly with a wooden spoon, taking care not to break the nouilles, add pepper and salt if required, and serve in a hot vegetable dish, accompanied by hot buttered toast, and a little good mustard. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A Victorian pasta dish that reads oddly to modern eyes chiefly because of its liquid: a pint and a half of gravy for a few servings of noodles. Treat that as a braise rather than a sauce and the dish makes sense.
- What nouilles areFresh egg noodles, from the French rendering of the German Nudeln — flour, egg yolks and a little salt, rolled thin and cut into ribbons. Cassell's gives the dough elsewhere in the book; a good fresh tagliatelle or fettuccine is the direct equivalent. Dried pasta will need its package time, not six minutes.
- The liquid is the hingeA pint and a half is 30 fl oz Imperial, roughly 3.5 US cups, which is far too much to leave in the pan. Keep the noodles moving over gentle heat until the gravy has reduced and clung to them; served swimming, the dish is a soup with cheese in it.
- "Gravy" hereNot thickened pan gravy but a strong brown stock or jus — veal or beef bones reduced until it has body. A good unsalted beef stock reduced by half is the practical substitute. Salt at the end, since the ham and Parmesan both bring plenty.
- Quantities in gramsOne ounce of butter is 28 g, three ounces of ham about 85 g, two ounces of grated Parmesan about 55 g. That is a modest amount of cheese for six to eight people; a little more will not hurt.
- Six minutes, and dryingFresh noodles are done in two to four minutes; six is the outside limit and assumes a thicker hand-cut ribbon. The instruction to drain and dry matters — surface water dilutes the gravy and stops it coating.
- The hamBoiled ham cut in dice, fat and lean together, means a cooked joint carved thick, not deli slices. A piece of cooked gammon or a thick-cut ham steak diced to 1 cm works; the fat is doing seasoning work and should not be trimmed away.
- HandlingThe wooden spoon and the warning against breaking the noodles are the point of the method. Fold from the bottom of the pan rather than stirring, and do the mixing off direct heat if the pan is catching.
- Yield and serviceSix to eight as written, which by Victorian standards means a side or supper dish rather than a main. The hot buttered toast and mustard alongside are period practice — the mustard cuts the fat of ham and cheese, and is worth keeping.
The spelling gives the route: nouilles is the French adaptation of the German Nudeln, and English cookery took the noodle largely by way of French kitchens. Nineteenth-century British books treat nouilles as a preparation in their own right — a dough to be made at home, boiled, and then dressed with gravy, cheese, or sweetened and baked. Parmesan is specified without explanation, which suggests it was a familiar grocer's item, kept in the piece and grated as needed; the allowance for "any other cheese which is not strong in flavour" is the kind of practical concession that runs through the whole dictionary.