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Cheese and Macaroni Loaf
1/2 cup macaroni broken into small pieces 1 cup of milk 1 cup soft bread crumbs 1 tablespoon butter 1 teaspoon each of chopped onion and parsley 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup grated cheese 1 tablespoon chopped green pepper Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender, and rinse in cold water. Cook the parsley, onion and pepper in a little water with the butter. Pour off the water or allow it to boil away, and mix all the ingredients. Line a quart baking dish with buttered paper; turn the mixture into it; set the baking dish in a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven for one-half to three-fourths of an hour. Serve with tomato sauce.
A wartime-era meat substitute that behaves more like a savory pudding than a loaf. A few of the original's assumptions need translating before it works on a modern stove.
- Moderate ovenIn period usage this is roughly 350-375F; 350F is the safe choice here. The water bath keeps the milk and cheese from curdling or scorching at the edges, so do not be tempted to raise it.
- Buttered paperParchment cut to fit and buttered does exactly what the original intends. Leave an overhang on two sides so you can lift the loaf out; foil works but sticks to the cheese unless well greased.
- A quart baking dishThat is a 4-cup capacity, which in practice means a small loaf pan (roughly 7 by 3 inches) or a deep 1-quart casserole. The mixture should come near the top, as it barely rises.
- No egg in the bindingThis recipe relies on starch from the macaroni and the crumbs alone. Expect something soft and spoonable rather than sliceable; serve it from the dish if it will not turn out cleanly.
- The macaroniHalf a cup of dry macaroni broken small gives about a cup cooked. Cook it just to tender, not beyond, since it takes another 30 to 45 minutes in the oven and will otherwise collapse into the crumbs.
- Grated cheeseThe book means a dry, firm cheese that grates to a powder, which in American usage of the period generally meant aged store cheddar. Any sharp cheddar or a mix of cheddar and Parmesan gives the savor the dish depends on.
- Soft bread crumbsFresh crumbs torn or grated from a day-old loaf, not the dry canister kind. Dry crumbs absorb far more milk and will make the loaf pasty.
- YieldThree to four servings as a main course with the tomato sauce, more as a side. It reheats well, covered, at the same temperature.
Books of this sort multiplied in the United States and Britain during the First World War, when meat, wheat, fats and sugar were the things households were asked to economize on and cheese was widely promoted as a cheap substitute for meat. The meat substitute chapter is a period genre in itself: loaves built from beans, nuts, rice or macaroni, molded in a pan, baked in a water bath and served with tomato sauce so they would arrive at the table looking as much like a meatloaf as possible. The water bath and the paper lining are borrowed straight from the technique for custards and timbales, which tells you what texture the writer actually expected. Macaroni and cheese was already thoroughly domesticated in American cooking by then, having arrived in the eighteenth century as an elite Italian import and worked its way down to the everyday table; giving it the shape and sauce of a roast was the small act of imagination the moment required.