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Macaroni with Gravy
Prepare a small quantity of veal gravy, skim off the fat and mix with it a few tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce, a little raw ham, a small bunch of sweet herbs, and a small quantity of pepper. Place this at the side of the fire and let it simmer until wanted. Meanwhile boil some macaroni in a little salted water; when tender drain, and before it gets cold take up small quantities with a skimmer and put them in layers in a deep dish. Cover each layer with grated Parmesan cheese, moisten with a little of the gravy strained through a sieve and mixed with a little butter, and serve very hot. If the gravy is too thin, thicken it with a little meat-glaze.
A simple assembly that lives or dies on the quality of the veal gravy, so make that first and give it time to reduce. Everything else takes minutes.
- "Veal gravy" means reduced stockNot a flour-thickened gravy but veal stock cooked down until it coats a spoon. The original gives no quantities; as a guide, reduce about 2 cups of good veal or brown chicken stock by half, which yields roughly 3/4 cup of finished sauce for a pound of macaroni.
- Raw hamProsciutto, speck or any dry-cured unsmoked ham. It goes into the sauce uncooked to season it, then is strained out with the herbs, so a scrap end or two is enough.
- Bunch of sweet herbsA bouquet garni of parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string. Tied or bundled so it can be lifted out cleanly before straining.
- Meat-glazeGlace de viande: stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. Commercial veal glace, sold in tubs or tubes, is the nearest equivalent (demi-glace is a thinner, different preparation); half a teaspoon stirred in will tighten a thin sauce without the dulling effect of flour.
- The macaroniAt this period "macaroni" generally meant tubular pasta, commonly in long lengths rather than the small elbows sold today. Boil in plenty of well-salted water despite the "little salted water" of the original, and drain while still firm, since it will sit in hot sauce before it reaches the table.
- Work hot and fastThe instruction that matters most is "before it gets cold." Layering warm macaroni with cheese lets the Parmesan melt into strands rather than sitting as grit; a cold layer will clump and the cheese will never come together.
- Strain, then butterPass the sauce through a fine sieve to remove the herbs and ham, then swirl in a tablespoon of cold butter off the heat. Do not boil it again after the butter goes in or the sauce will separate.
- YieldThe original gives no quantities. As a rough guide, a pound of macaroni with this quantity of sauce and about 4 oz of grated Parmesan will serve four as a first course.
This is macaroni as a restaurant garnish rather than a home casserole: no white sauce, no baked crust, just pasta layered with Parmesan and moistened with strained brown veal gravy. That construction points to the French kitchen brigade of the period, in which such a dish would be assembled from sauces and stocks already part of the professional repertoire. Italian macaroni had been familiar in American and English cookery since the eighteenth century, but in Oscar Tschirky's era it was often treated the French way, as a starch to be dressed with whatever sauce the house happened to have. The reliance on glace de viande to correct a thin gravy is a professional habit rather than a domestic one.