[Sca-cooks] again from Purgatory

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach 'Lainie:

>And as regards teh Blue and Yellow box, he sez:
>
>>  I've yet to see any documentation that _macaroni_ in it's modern shape
>>  is historic. Pasta and cheese, yes, I've seen enough of that, mostly a
>>  flat, wide noodle like modern lasagne. ANd not covered in processed
>>  cheddar, American, or Velveta.
>
>Cartwheels? Dinosaurs? Spaceships? Footballs? I have a vague memory of
>Wookie-shaped pasta, but perhaps I'm lucky and just hallucinating
>that...
>
>Pasta is pretty easy to make flat. How far back do pasta extruders and
>such go? Master A? Phlip? Y'all know about that sort of thing? What
>about manicotti? Ziti? And long skinny spaghetti?

Platina mentions tubular pasta, rolled by hand and then pierced with
an iron rod, a skewer or something like that. IIRC. He's probably not
the first.

>Damn. Now I'm hungry again. WOnder what's in the pantry?

Years and years ago (well, okay, maybe 13 or 14 years ago), a Laurel
from a certain Southern Kingdom, one who cooks (although not a
"cooking Laurel", per se), and who had called _my_ work fatuous and
speculative, or some such, announced to the world that she could
document Cheez Whiz as period, as she had hunted down all the cheeses
used to make Cheez Whiz and determined to her own satisfaction that
each individual ingredient was used in period. I merely mention this;
I would not dream of criticizing the work of my sister in the arts.

Actually, Cheez Whiz _has_ an industrial, food service application
(besides making wonderful spackle and tile caulking, seam sealer,
etc.). Because it's so chock full of stabilizers, a relatively small
amount, say, a tablespoonful or so, stirred into a pot of real cheese
sauce, such as a bechamel to which a lot of grated cheddar has been
added, and which might otherwise be tempted to curdle in baking (the
pasta absorbs moisture from the sauce, and, as the dish cooks, it
suddenly has much more butterfat than it can keep emulsified, so it
breaks like a vinaigrette). Cheez Whiz is designed to remain smooth
through a short-range, ground-zero nuclear blast, and if you don't
use enough to seriously compromise the flavor of your sauce, it can
help.

Adamantius