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Cheese Sticks or Straws
Three tablespoons of flour; three tablespoons of Parmesan cheese; one tablespoon of butter; one tablespoon of milk, one-half saltspoon of salt, one-fourth saltspoon of pepper; one-eighth saltspoon of nutmeg; one egg (yolk only). Mix the dry ingredients, and add the milk, the egg, and the butter, softened. Mix all well with a spoon, and when the dough is smooth, divide it into two parts. Roll these very thin, cut them into narrow strips three inches long, and bake in a slow oven fifteen minutes. These sticks may be served either hot or cold, and they may be arranged in bunches of six or eight, each bundle being tied with narrow ribbon, or they may be piled on a plate in log-cabin style. A few grains of cayenne may be added to this recipe. If tightly enclosed in a tin, these sticks will keep a long time.
A tiny recipe by modern standards — three tablespoons of flour makes a single plate of straws. The measurements are the main obstacle, along with an oven temperature given only by feel.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So the seasoning here works out to about 1/8 teaspoon salt, a scant 1/16 teaspoon pepper and the barest pinch of nutmeg.
- A slow ovenRoughly 275-300F. Straws this thin will colour quickly at higher heat, and the low oven dries them through so they snap rather than bend — which is also why they keep.
- Scale it upAs written this makes only a small plateful, a few bundles of the six or eight the recipe describes. The proportions multiply by three or four if you want a real batch.
- The dough is meant to be stiffOne tablespoon of milk against three of flour gives a paste closer to shortcrust than batter. Work it with the spoon until it coheres; add milk only a few drops at a time if it will not come together, since a wet dough spreads and loses the crisp edge.
- ParmesanGrate it yourself and grate it fine. Pre-grated tubbed cheese usually carries an anti-caking agent, which can dull the flavour and make so small a quantity of dough behave oddly.
- Rolling very thinAn eighth of an inch or less, rolled between two sheets of parchment, which spares you flouring a dough that is already dry. Cut with a knife or pastry wheel and transfer the strips on the parchment rather than lifting them individually.
- StorageThe tin is not decorative advice. These stale by going soft, not hard, so an airtight container matters more than it would for a biscuit; a week is realistic.
- The ribbonTie the bundles only once the sticks are completely cold and only just before serving. Warm straws sweat inside a ribbon and lose their snap.
Cheese straws belong to the savoury — the small salty course that came after the sweet at a formal Victorian and Edwardian dinner, meant to finish the wine rather than the pudding. Their appearance in a Butterick book is telling: Butterick was a dress-pattern publisher whose domestic manuals were aimed at women running a household, and a recipe using three tablespoons of flour and one egg yolk is one designed to be made at home, in small quantity, from what the pantry already held. The presentation notes are the period speaking plainly. Tying the sticks in ribboned bundles or stacking them log-cabin fashion belongs to a moment when the visual arrangement of a dish was considered as much a part of the cook's work as its flavour. Cayenne is offered as an option at the end, alongside the nutmeg.