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Plain Macaroni

Boiled macaroni seasoned with salt, pepper, and red pepper, served as a simple side dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Plain Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Break the macaroni into pieces about two inches long and add it to the boiling salted and peppered water or stock.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes or longer until soft but not falling apart.

  3. Drain the macaroni in a colander to remove all the water.

  4. Dust with red pepper and serve in a vegetable dish or alongside meats or eggs.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes soft and tender as it simmers in the liquid.

The step that matters

Boil until soft but not falling apart. Pasta keeps cooking in its own residual heat after draining, and boiling too long breaks down its starch structure, so it turns mushy. Testing for tenderness during the boil helps you stop at the right point.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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