Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [28]
Altitude lowers the boiling point and increases cooking time. For every thousand feet above sea level, water boils at 1 degree C and about 1.5 degrees F lower, so in the mountains, your tea will be cooler.
PASTA
The origins of pasta are obscure. Contrary to popular belief, pasta was not brought back from China by Marco Polo but probably originated in Sicily, which was the granary of the Roman Empire in its later days. It is mentioned in literature as early as the 12th century, and by the 15th century, various recipes were in print. Most likely, it came into being as a method of preserving milled wheat by mixing it with water and drying it in the sun.
Pasta is made from semolina flour—the product of hard, high-gluten wheat (durum wheat) that allows the dough made from its flour to have a strong, elastic structure—and water. It is low in calories and has nearly the same protein content as beef. With some butter or fresh tomato sauce and grated cheese, it makes a complete meal.
The commercial manufacture of pasta became possible in the early 1800s when machinery was devised to force the heavy semolina dough through a die, creating long strands of various shapes and thicknesses: round forms like spaghetti, flat like fettucine, star-shaped, and so on. The early machines could extrude a five-foot length of pasta that in Naples, in the old days, was hung on racks in the back streets and courtyards to dry. Afterward, it was broken in two where it had been folded and thus for a long time had a characteristic curved tip. Today almost all dried pasta comes in shorter lengths to fit on supermarket shelves. Italian-made pasta is judged superior to others.
The area around Naples originally provided the durum wheat necessary for pasta; then Ukraine became the biggest source until Soviet times. Today much of the wheat necessary for pasta comes from North and South Dakota.
Besides the dried variety, made to have an indefinite shelf life, there is fresh pasta, made with various kinds of flour, eggs, and vegetable flavorings, which must be used quickly. Fresh pasta is most suitable for mild cream or butter sauces. It is not superior to dry pasta, merely a different form, and its quality will depend entirely on who is making it.
NIP
“Nip” probably originated with the Dutch nippen, which means “a sip,” or from nipperkin, meaning “a small measure.” However, it’s possible that it comes from the name of the Greek nymph Aganippe, whose spring on Mount Helicon was sacred to the Muses because it was believed that those who drank from it were given poetic inspiration.
LUCULLUS
In 66 B.C., at the age of sixty, Roman general Lucullus won a glorious victory for Rome over Mithridates, the ruler of Asia Minor. Nevertheless, his army, which had never been devoted to him, threatened mutiny almost daily, and Lucullus was forced to retire to his country villa, where he consoled himself by hosting lavish entertainments and feasts, sometimes featuring the fruit he’d discovered on a campaign years before in Armenia and brought to Rome for the first time: the cherry.
Wishing to test his reputation for opulence, Cicero and Pompey appeared unannounced one night but would not let Lucullus give any special orders to his servants except to say two more places should be set at the table. They didn’t know that his dining rooms were designated by the amount to be spent on each guest. Determined to impress them, Lucullus told his chief steward there were to be two extra places in the Hall of Apollo, where, as his staff knew, the lavish meal served always cost the equivalent of over one thousand dollars per person.
On one rare occasion, Lucullus told his chef that no guest would be coming to dinner. The chef interpreted this to mean that a meal costing a mere five hundred dollars would do. Afterward, Lucullus expressed extreme annoyance: “On those days when I am alone, you must make a special effort, for that is when Lucullus dines with Lucullus.”
EGG
The 20th-century