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Macaroni Timbales
Boil 8 ounces of macaroni in the usual way, and drain them well. Have ready minced the white meat of a cold roast fowl and a slice or two of lean ham; mix with 2 tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan, and moisten with nearly 1/2 pint of thick cream and the beaten yolks and whites of 3 eggs. Cover a well-buttered mould with some of the macaroni, and mix the remainder, cut into neat lengths, with the meat, with which mixture fill the mould, and steam for three-quarters of an hour. A pudding paste is sometimes substituted for the lining of macaroni, but in either case steaming is better than boiling. Serve, turned out of the mould, and with a good gravy.
A Victorian moulded macaroni pudding, closer to a savoury custard than to a pasta bake. The custard is what holds it together, so the balance of eggs, cream and cheese matters more than the shape of the mould.
- The hinge: steam, do not boilThe mixture is an egg custard bound with cream, and dry oven heat or a hard boil will curdle it. Set the covered mould on a rack in a pan of gently simmering water, with the water no more than halfway up the sides, and keep it at a bare tremble for the full 45 minutes.
- Half a pint of creamThis looks like an English book, so the pint is 20 fl oz and "nearly 1/2 pint" comes to a generous cup — roughly 9 to 10 fl oz — of heavy cream. An American recipe of the same period would mean 8 fl oz; either works, but the larger amount gives a softer set.
- Macaroni of the periodNineteenth-century macaroni was long hollow tubes, which is why it can be laid around the inside of a mould in overlapping spirals. Modern elbow macaroni will not line anything; use bucatini or long ziti for the lining and short cut pasta for the filling.
- Boil it short"The usual way" in books of this era often meant fifteen or twenty minutes. Cook to just under al dente instead, since the pasta absorbs cream and steams for another three-quarters of an hour.
- Cold roast fowlThis is a leftovers dish: the white meat of a roast chicken, minced fine rather than shredded. The recipe gives no weight, but 8 to 10 oz suits the quantity of macaroni. Poached chicken breast works but is blander; the roasting flavour is much of the point.
- Lean hamA slice or two means roughly 2 oz of dry-cured or cooked ham, finely minced, used for seasoning rather than bulk. Along with the Parmesan it supplies most of the salt, so taste before adding more.
- Buttering the mouldButter generously and cold, then dust with fine dry breadcrumbs or grated Parmesan before lining. Let the turned-out timbale rest five minutes in the mould before inverting so the custard firms.
- Yield and gravyA mould of about 1.5 quarts should hold the mixture and serve six as a light main course. "A good gravy" means pan juices from the original roast, or a light chicken velout ear the base.
Timbale comes from the French word for a kettledrum, and by extension for the drum-shaped mould; the term covered any savoury mixture set in one and turned out whole. Dishes like this one sat at the intersection of two Victorian preoccupations: the moulded entree, which let a cook present cold leftovers as something formal, and the growing English enthusiasm for Italian macaroni, which by the late nineteenth century was imported in long tubes and often treated as a vegetable or a farinaceous course rather than as a dish in its own right. The alternative lining of pudding paste, mentioned almost in passing, is the older English form: a suet or short crust standing in for the pasta, and a reminder that the savoury steamed pudding and the French timbale were doing much the same job in a household economising on a Sunday roast.