Transfer pasta to oven-proof dish and evenly distribute cheese sauce over the top. Grate the cheeses and beat together with eggs and sherry.

So, our modern version of the recipe looked like this: We debated using a culinary torch but decided that an oven would provide more even cooking. Essentially, a salamander was a hand-held broiler. A salamander was a piece of cast iron with a handle attached it would be heated in the fire and then held on top of a dish to warm it. fusili) would most likely have been used.Įarly modern cooks used salamanders to brown dishes. Based on the amount of cheese sauce, we determined that approximately half a pound of pasta (ex. Note that although the recipe provides specific measurements for all ingredients of the cheese sauce, the amount of macaroni is left unspecified. For Gloucester cheese, we substituted a sharp, aged cheddar for Cheshire, a milder cheddar. One of these later became known as “sherry,” so sherry is what we turned to here. Defined in Samuel Johnson’s 1737 Dictionary as “A kind of sweet wine, now brought chiefly from the Canaries.” Also known as “Canary wine,” sack identified a few varieties of sweet, fortified light wine. Cheese, eggs, and macaroni are all familiar.

This recipe, unlike some others to be featured, discussed, and puzzled over here in the next few months, features no ingredients that are mysterious, challenging to obtain, or downright unappetizing. grated – put it into a Stone Mortar with two Eggs, two or three Spoonfulls of Sack or Mountain Wine, beat it ’till it’s well mixt and Light – Boil the Maccarony in Water very tender, then drain it well, put it on a Dish or Plate and lay the prepared Cheese all over it and brown it w ith a Salamander.

Two Ounces of best Glocester Cheese, 4 Ounces Cheshire Do.

Pounds of mac and cheese for 100