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Macaroni and Tomato Sauce No. 3
1/2 pound macaroni 1 onion 2 1/2 ounces grated Parmesan 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 ounce butter 2 1/2 ounces grated Gruyere cheese Suspicion of nutmeg Salt to taste 6 tablespoons cream Boil one-half pound macaroni in water with a lump of butter, an onion, two cloves and salt; when done, drain the macaroni, and place in a saucepan with two and one-half ounces of grated Gruyere cheese and two and one-half ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, a little grated nutmeg, some coarse black pepper and six tablespoons of cream; toss and stir well until the cheese becomes thick and stringy. Serve with tomato sauce in the middle of the dish.
A plain cheese-tossed macaroni with tomato sauce spooned into the well of the dish. Two things need attention: the pasta is boiled far longer in period practice than it should be, and the cheese must be melted off strong heat.
- The hinge: low heat, no boilingGruyère and Parmesan will break and go oily if the pan is hot. Drain the macaroni, take the saucepan off the burner or set it on the lowest flame, then add the cheeses and cream and toss until they pull into strands. The residual heat of the pasta does most of the work.
- Cooking the macaroniThis recipe gives no time; cookbooks of the period generally called for long boiling, often 20 minutes or more, which gives a soft, swollen noodle. Modern dried macaroni wants 8 to 10 minutes, or whatever the box says less a minute, since it finishes in the cheese.
- The aromatics in the waterThe onion, two cloves and butter go into the boiling water, not into the finished dish. Halve the onion, stick the cloves into it so they are easy to retrieve, and discard both before dressing the pasta.
- Cheese by weightTwo and a half ounces of grated cheese is roughly three-quarters of a cup loosely packed, of each. Grate from a block; pre-shredded cheese is coated with anti-caking powder and tends not to melt as smoothly.
- "Suspicion of nutmeg"An eighth of a teaspoon, freshly grated, at most. It should register only as warmth behind the cheese.
- CreamSix tablespoons. Period 'cream' varied a good deal in richness; heavy cream is the safest modern choice here. Light cream or half-and-half works but is thinner and more likely to separate if the pan gets hot.
- The tomato sauceNone is given here; the 'No. 3' in the title suggests a series, and a sauce may well appear elsewhere in the book. A plain tomato sauce, seasoned and unsweetened, suits it. Serve it in the centre rather than stirred through, as written.
- YieldHalf a pound of macaroni with this much cheese serves three as a main course, four as a side.
Numbered variants of the same dish — No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 — were simply a common cookbook convention of the period. The pairing of Gruyère with Parmesan is Franco-Italian rather than American, and the trick of boiling the pasta with a clove-studded onion belongs to the same continental kitchen tradition that flavoured stock and béchamel the same way. Serving the tomato sauce in the middle of the platter, unmixed, is a period presentation habit visible across turn-of-the-century books, where a sauce was something a diner drew from rather than something already folded in.