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Macaroni au Gratin
3/4 cup macaroni 1 cup sour cream 1/4 clove garlic, cut fine 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 egg yolk or one whole egg Cook the macaroni according to the general directions. Beat together the egg yolk, salt, sour cream, and garlic, and mix it with the macaroni after it is cooked and drained. Put it into a small baking dish. Sprinkle with zwieback crumbs, and bake till set.
If a larger quantity is to be made, one egg is sufficient for four times this recipe.
Macaroni au Gratin, with Cottage Cheese 3/4 cup macaroni 1/2 cup creamy cottage cheese 3/4 cup milk 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, or melted butter substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 egg 1/4 clove garlic Cook the macaroni according to directions. Stir the cottage cheese smooth with the milk. Break the egg in the bowl. Beat the egg with a batter whip, then beat the oil into it drop by drop, so as to make an emulsion of the oil. Then stir into it the milk-and-cheese mixture, the salt, and the garlic. Now mix this with the cooked and drained macaroni, pour it in a baking dish, sprinkle with crumbs, and bake till set.
Two versions of the same baked macaroni, one bound with soured cream, one with cottage cheese. Neither gives an oven temperature and both depend on the custard setting rather than browning, so the numbers below matter more than the timing.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives none, only "bake till set." Both dishes are egg custards holding macaroni, and a hot oven risks curdling the cream or cheese mixture and weeping liquid, so a moderate oven (around 350F) is a reasonable modern reading. Judge by the centre no longer trembling rather than by the clock.
- Sour creamHere this means cream that has soured or been cultured, likely thinner and sharper than today's stabilised tub sour cream. Modern full-fat sour cream works, thinned with a spoonful of milk.
- Zwieback crumbsZwieback is a twice-baked, lightly sweetened rusk. Crushed rusk or plain dried breadcrumbs are the closest substitutes; use unsweetened crumbs if you want the dish savoury.
- The oil emulsionIn the cottage cheese version, beating the oil into the egg drop by drop is the hinge. It makes a thin mayonnaise, so the fat stays suspended instead of separating into a slick during baking. Add it too fast and the topping will float in oil.
- "Butter substitute"A period term for the vegetable shortenings and nut fats sold to households avoiding dairy butter. The recipe offers vegetable oil or melted butter substitute; a neutral oil, or plain melted butter if dairy is no concern, will serve.
- The saltHalf a teaspoon in the first recipe against a teaspoon and a half in the second, for the same 3/4 cup of macaroni. The larger amount is aggressive by current taste, especially with salted cottage cheese; start at half a teaspoon and adjust.
- GarlicA quarter clove chopped fine is a very small amount by present-day measure. Those wanting a more pronounced flavour can increase it, bearing in mind the garlic goes in raw.
- Yield and scaling3/4 cup of macaroni makes a small dish, perhaps two modest servings. The recipe's own note that one egg binds four times the first quantity is worth heeding: do not multiply the egg along with everything else.
Au gratin here means the crust rather than the cheese: the term is generally traced to the French for the crisp scrapings from the pan, and it was commonly applied to any dish given a browned crumb top. That is how this book uses it, since the first version contains no cheese whatever. The soured cream, cottage cheese, quarter-clove garlic, "butter substitute" and zwieback crumbs suggest a kitchen avoiding both butter and aged cheese, with fresh curd standing in.