No. 2966

Spaghetti Macaroni a la Laurence

Macaroni Spaghetti a la Laurence

Cook the spaghetti in boiling water for ten minutes; drain and finish in some veal blond (No. 423) in such a way that when the paste is cooked the moistening will be entirely reduced, then dress it in a vegetable dish intercalated with layers of grated parmesan. Serve the following sauce separately: Chop up two ounces of onions, fry it in butter with six ounces of minced ham, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, mignonette, an uncrushed clove of garlic, six halved and well-pressed-out tomatoes, melted meat glaze (No. 402) and espagnole sauce (No. 414); boil together for fifteen minutes, then strain through a tammy and pour in a sauce-tureen to serve at the same time as the macaroni.

← No. 2965 Macaronnicelli a la Lucini Macaroni, Rice & Farinaceous No. 2967 Spaghetti Macaroni a la Prati →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives no quantities for the pasta itself and assumes a kitchen with stocks already on the stove. The technique is the point: spaghetti part-boiled in water, then finished by absorption in veal stock, so the starch and stock become the coating.

The hinge: finish, don't drownThe spaghetti goes into the veal blond only until the liquid is entirely reduced, so it must be underboiled first. Ten minutes in water leaves it short of done; with today's pasta, boil about two-thirds of the package time, then finish in stock with tongs, adding it a ladle at a time as it is absorbed.
Veal blondA light veal stock, only lightly coloured rather than a full brown stock. A good unsalted white veal or chicken stock stands in. Add it gradually as it is absorbed, keeping it hot in a separate pan.
Espagnole and meat glazeEspagnole is the brown mother sauce built on browned veal stock and a brown roux; meat glaze (glace de viande) is brown stock reduced to a syrup. A good reduced brown stock lightly thickened will carry the sauce; a tablespoon of glace de viande, or a further reduction of the same stock, supplies the gloss.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white or mixed peppercorns, not a dressing. A generous pinch, cracked under a pan, is what is meant.
The garlic cloveLeft whole and unbruised so it perfumes without dominating. It is discarded at the straining stage, as is the parsley, thyme and bay bundle.
Tomatoes, halved and pressedSqueezing out seeds and juice keeps the sauce from thinning during the fifteen-minute boil. Six medium tomatoes in season; out of season, a cup of drained canned tomato is closer to the intent than pale fresh fruit.
TammyA tightly woven cloth through which sauce was forced with a wooden spoon or a twisted stick. A fine chinois pressed hard, or a conical strainer followed by a fine sieve, gives the same smooth, ham-flavoured sauce.
IntercalatedSimply layered: pasta, grated Parmesan, pasta, Parmesan. Use a warmed serving dish, since the pasta carries little sauce of its own.
YieldThe sauce quantities as written would suit roughly a pound of spaghetti, serving perhaps six as a pasta course or four as a main dish; the recipe itself specifies no pasta quantity or number of covers.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) collects the repertoire Charles Ranhofer cooked during some three decades at Delmonico's in New York, and its macaroni chapter shows how thoroughly Italian pasta had been absorbed into French restaurant practice by then: the noodles are Italian, but the treatment is entirely a French kitchen's, finished in veal blond and served with a strained espagnole-based sauce in its own tureen. Ranhofer runs dozens of these numbered variations back to back, each named for a person, a place or a patron, and "a la Laurence" is one of many whose namesake is now unrecoverable. What the recipe records is the brigade system at work: nothing here can be made without the numbered stocks and sauces cross-referenced in the text, which is why the instructions read as shorthand to a cook who already had them simmering.