Vermicelli
There are but three well-known instances in Western Europe of disrespectful names being given to the dainties of the table. The English call one of their preparations of beef " toad in the hole." The French try to give the appearance of a toad to their pigeons. And the Italians issue some of their best paste in the form and with the name of little worms. The poet Cowper tells, in one of his letters, how his servant gave some vermicelli soup to a poor beggar, who refused it with disgust, saying, "I am very poor and hungry; but I am not able to eat maggots." Spite of its name, and because of its form, this vermicelli is one of the most pleasant preparations of Italian paste. The fineness of form proves the fineness of paste, and makes it melt in the mouth. Vermicelli soup has accordingly, for many generations, been one of the most popular, as well as refined, soups in Europe; and has done honour to that Italian genius which has produced so many masterpieces in sculpture, painting, and music. Its preparation is of the simplest. From a quarter to half a pound of vermicelli is broken gradually into hot water, and boiled in it for a few minutes. It is then added to and boiled for a few minutes more in a clear gravy, broth, or double broth. The same principle applies to macaroni and the other Italian pastes. If they are not boiled in water first before being added to the soup, they destroy its clearness. The French cooks sometimes add asparagus points, or green peas, or sorrel leaves, or celery cut in the Julienne fashion. But these additions are of doubtful value. If the vermicelli is good, it ought to be enough of itself. The most fashionable addition to it is one upon which Talleyrand insisted as essential to all the macaroni soups. Serve it with grated Vermouth Parmesan cheese in a dish apart, and after it quaff a glass of Madeira or Solera sherry.
Vermicelli Pudding, which holds a place in English cookery, is a mistake. The perfection of vermicelli is to be limp and moist, slipping on the tongue like a liquid. In a pudding it becomes too firm and dry, and its liquid melody is lost.
VERMOUTH is a wormwood wine, and so far differs from Absinthe-which is an infusion of wormwood and allied plants in spirits. In Vermouth the wormwood is commonly supposed to be infused in a white Hungarian wine -St. George. Some of the Italian white wines-as White Capri, or White Lachryma Christi-would do as well.
See Wormwood.
Buried in the essay is a complete method for vermicelli soup: parboil the pasta separately, then finish it in good broth. The instructions are workable as written, with a few points of translation.
- The hinge: parboil separatelyThe one instruction that matters is boiling the vermicelli in plain water before it goes into the broth. Starch shed by raw pasta will cloud a clear soup permanently, and no amount of straining afterwards recovers it. Drain the pasta and discard the starchy water.
- Quantity and yieldA quarter to half a pound of vermicelli is about 115-225 g. The recipe gives no quantity of broth and no number of servings; take the lower figure unless you want a very thick soup.
- "Double broth"Consommé double: a clarified stock reduced or re-simmered over fresh meat and bones so it carries twice the flavour. A good clear chicken or beef consommé is the modern equivalent; the pasta contributes nothing but texture, so the broth is the whole dish.
- TimingThe recipe says only 'a few minutes' in each stage. Modern dried vermicelli needs 2-4 minutes in the first water and barely a minute in the broth. Take it out short of tender; it goes on cooking in hot soup, and the desired state here is limp and slippery rather than soft.
- "Broken gradually"Vermicelli was sold in long coiled skeins or nests, snapped into short lengths at the pot. Anything from an inch to two inches is right for spoon eating.
- "Vermouth Parmesan cheese"A printer's slip; the word Vermouth has jumped up from the entry that follows. Read it as grated Parmesan served in a separate dish, which is how Talleyrand is said to have taken his macaroni soups.
- The optional garnishesAsparagus tips, peas, sorrel and julienne celery all need cooking apart and adding at the last moment, or they will muddy the consommé exactly as unboiled pasta would. The author's view that plain is better is defensible.
Kettner's Book of the Table (1877), written by the journalist E. S. Dallas around the reputation of Auguste Kettner's Soho restaurant, is arranged as an alphabetical dictionary, which is why a soup method, a lexical joke and a note on wormwood wine all share one entry. Vermicelli is simply the Italian for "little worms", a shape name of the same order as farfalle (butterflies) or orecchiette (little ears). Dried pasta appears to have reached British kitchens largely as an import used for soup rather than as a dish in its own right, which is the context for the author's dismissal of vermicelli pudding: sweet baked puddings of vermicelli or macaroni with milk, sugar and nutmeg appear in English cookery books of the period, and the preference here for pasta as a thing that slips on the tongue is a defence of the Italian handling of it against the English one.