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Macaroni with Ham
Put two ounces of macaroni broken in pieces in a saucepan with one pint of highly seasoned stock, and boil until tender; add a little salt, pepper and butter, and turn it onto a hot dish with two ounces of minced cooked fat ham or streaky bacon, sprinkle over a few fried breadcrumbs, and serve.
A small chafing-dish sort of supper from Oscar Tschirky's Waldorf kitchen: macaroni cooked directly in stock rather than water, so the pasta absorbs the seasoning. It serves one generously or two as a side.
- The hinge: cook in stock, not waterThe macaroni takes up the stock's flavour as it softens instead of plain water. Keep the pan at a bare simmer and stir now and then so the starch does not catch. The recipe does not say to drain, so judge how much liquid to leave.
- "Highly seasoned stock"A well-flavoured meat stock, seasoned more strongly than a plain broth; the recipe does not say which meat or which seasonings. Modern boxed stock is thinner and often under-seasoned; reduce a pint and a half down to a pint to concentrate it.
- Macaroni of the periodMacaroni was commonly sold in long hollow tubes to be snapped into pieces, hence "broken." Any short tubular shape works. Boiling until tender in stock takes roughly the box time, perhaps a little longer.
- Fat ham and streaky bacon"Fat ham" means the fattier trimmings of a cured, cooked ham rather than a lean centre slice; streaky bacon is what Americans simply call bacon. Either should be cooked and minced before it goes in, and the rendered fat is worth adding to the pan.
- Fried breadcrumbsThese are fresh crumbs browned in butter or the ham fat in a skillet, not dry packaged crumbs. They go on at the last moment for crunch and will soften within a few minutes of hitting the hot dish.
- Quantities and saltTwo ounces is about a scant half cup of dry macaroni. Salt at the end, after the stock has reduced and the cured ham has gone in, or the dish will overshoot.
Macaroni had been familiar in American and British kitchens since the eighteenth century, usually boiled soft and served with cheese or in a cream sauce; cooking it in seasoned broth instead, and finishing with minced ham and fried crumbs, is closer to an Italian pasta in brodo tradition and to the economical chafing-dish cookery that was fashionable in the 1890s.