MACARONI: is considered by the general public as a typical and peculiarly Italian food, and Italy is probably entitled to the credit for her early appreciation of its virtues her fidelity to it after adoption, but history credits its invention to the Chinese and its European introduction to the Germans. The Italians are said to have learned the art of making it from the latter. History, however, also informs us that, by the time the fourteenth century had rolled around, Italy was the only European nation enjoying macaroni, and that she held for a full hundred years the secret of the method of its manufacture. Later, some enterprising Frenchman introduced it into France, and with great success, for it is on record that King Louis XIII ordered a dish of it from an inn-keeper at Tours who had made a great reputation for its preparation.
The above is briefly the European idea of the history of macaroni—but it is dis puted by the Japanese, who claim priority in its use by hundreds of years. The Japanese delight especially in a very fine kind of vermicelli, cut into lengths of six to ten inches and tied in bundles. This variety is also peculiar in that it is flexible.
The essential point in the manufacture of macaroni is that the meal or "semola" be fr0om hard, very glutenous wheat, the kind known as "macaroni wheat" in this country. The best imported macaroni is made from the blending of various grades of semola obtained from Taganrog wheat—a very hard Russian variety, both imported from Russia and raised from Russian seed in Southern Italy and France.
By the original European method, the wheat is first steeped in water, then dried by heat, ground and sifted—both the husks and a considerable percentage of starch flour are thus separated, leaving a coarse meal, high in gluten and corresponding closely to the wheat "middlings" marketed here as wheat "farina" for consumption as a "cereal." The lessening of the starch proportion is advantageous, as in cooking its expansion tends to break the pipes or make them stick together in a pasty mass.
In general modern manufacture, coarsely ground flour is moistened with the smallest possible quantity of boiling water, and thoroughly mixed, by ma chinery, until smooth and "tough" and then kneaded in a special machine kneader known as a "gramola." The com pleted dough goes into the cylinders of the press, where tremendous pressure is brought to bear on it by means of revolv ing screws, and it is slowly passed out at the bottom of the cylinder through the small holes of the "trafila," as the per forated plate is called.
The form of the trafila fixes the char acter of the product—for "macaroni" and similar varieties, there is in each hole a steel pin which gives the "pipes" their well-known hollow or tubular form. With smaller holes without pins, the trafila produces "spaghetti" and similar solid types. For flat, noodle-like or "ribbon"
varieties, a fiat opening takes the place of the round hole.
The short kinds are cut off by auto matic rotary knives as the paste comes out of the trafila. The long varieties are cut off at the proper lengths by hand.
Next comes the drying—in Italy gen erally accomplished by outdoor exposure. The long solid pastes are looped over canes, the others are generally spread on frames. When sufficiently dry, they are carefully inspected, sorted, weighed and packed.
When outdoor exposure is not pos sible, as, for example, in paste manufac ture in the Eastern United States, a special drying room is used, the frames or canes being placed in tiers.
The proportion of profit in paste manufacture depends to a considerable extent on the care in drying—on the vigilance exercised in ensuring an unvarying temperature of the proper degree. If the air is allowed to become too moist, the entire batch may be ruined by mildew or souring; if too hot, it may spoil by over-rapid drying and con sequent cracking or damage to its texture, and if the room is draughty, loss by crack ing is again the result.
The average American consumer has no idea of the number of forms, a hundred or more, in which the paste is made by Italian manufacturers. They range from lasagnes, short, fiat pieces from one to two inches wide, cut out, and sometimes molded, by hand, to fidellini, long thin threads, the finest of which are many times smaller than vermicelli, which is the smallest type generally known here—and, in between, a great variety of forms and sizes—tubular, solid-round and flat, long and short, stars, dots, crescents, little animal shapes, etc., the last-named varie ties being cut from thin sheets of the dough. See Color Page, opposite page 350, illustrating a number of different types.
Macaroni should be kept in a dry, cool place. Under proper conditions it will remain good for a long time, but it is not generally advisable to risk de terioration by laying in a large stock.
In cooking, be careful to put it into boiling, and salted, water. Cold water will spoil the best macaroni. The water must be kept fully boiling for from twenty to thirty minutes until the maca roni is tender. When done, drain well and season or dress to suit individual tastes. The idea is to have every tube thoroughly tender, but each tube whole, separate and without pastiness.
In Creole cookery, macaroni, spaghetti, etc., is freely added to many soups.
If macaroni, after proper and careful cooking, is pasty or does not retain its shape, it is of poor quality and probably made from the wrong variety of wheat. Cooking is the only really conclusive test, consequently it is not good policy to stock heavily any macaroni by a new or unknown manufacturer until you have tried it by cooking some.