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Parmesan Cheese Straws
Beat three ounces of fresh butter to a cream. Mix with it three ounces of dried flour, three ounces of grated Parmesan, and half a salt-spoonful of cayenne. Roll the paste out thin; cut it into strips three inches long, and the third of an inch broad, and bake them on a buttered tin in a quick oven. Serve them immediately, piled high on a napkin. Time, a few minutes to bake. Probable cost 8d. Sufficient for two or three persons. (See also CHEESE STRAWS.)
A three-equal-parts formula — butter, flour, cheese — that still works exactly as written. The only real decisions are oven heat and how thin you roll.
- "A quick oven"Conventionally read as a hot oven, roughly 425-450F, though the book gives no figure. At that heat the straws need only a few minutes; pull them when the edges are just golden, since the cheese browns quickly and scorches easily.
- Weigh, don't scoop3 oz each of butter, flour and Parmesan is about 85 g each — roughly 6 tablespoons butter, 2/3 cup flour, and 1 cup finely grated cheese. Volume measures for grated Parmesan vary wildly with the grater, so scales are worth using here.
- "Dried flour"Victorian kitchens warmed flour by the fire to drive off damp before working it into butter. Modern packaged flour needs no such treatment; use it straight from the bag.
- Salt-spoonful of cayenneA salt-spoon is about a quarter teaspoon, so half of one is roughly 1/8 teaspoon — enough to give a faint heat behind the cheese, not to register as spicy. There is no added salt because Parmesan supplies it.
- No liquid in the pasteThe dough looks impossibly crumbly at first. Work it with the heel of the hand until it comes together, then chill 20 minutes before rolling; the butter is the only binder and it must be cold when the straws hit the oven.
- Rolling and cuttingRoll to about 1/8 inch. The specified strips — 3 inches by a third of an inch — are the classic proportion; cut them with a knife or pastry wheel and slide them onto the tray on the rolling surface rather than lifting each one, as they break easily.
- ServingThey crisp as they cool and go soft within a day. Serving piled high on a napkin was the standard presentation for such things, and the cloth also takes up any butter that weeps out while the straws are still warm.
Cheese straws belong to the British savoury -- the small, sharply seasoned course served after the sweet and before dessert at a Victorian dinner, a habit associated particularly with British dining. The paste is a straightforward demonstration of a fat-and-flour dough carrying a strong flavouring, with no water, no egg and no leavening to complicate matters. Parmesan appears rather than a British cheese because it grates dry and keeps well, which made it a useful store-cupboard item in the late nineteenth century; it was imported in whole hard wheels and often treated as a seasoning as much as a cheese. The costing of 8d. is a reminder of how these dictionaries were used -- as household management manuals in which expenditure could be checked alongside the method.