The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-10-16
MAKING MAcARoMI.

MANlN0 MACAdOCIs
The Labor 70 % Exhausting that the Men
Have to work in Relays.
One of tho industries carried ON in
the Italian quarter is the manufacture
of macaroni. Fifteen workmen are EN-.
ployed. The work is done in . rear
room on the second floor. When . re-
porter called the other day the proprie.
tor. who is . round-faced Neapolitar.
said.
I'VE use -four from hard winter wheas,
and the best we can get of its kind. We
pour the -four into these tubs and put
in about one gallon of water to thirty
pounds of -four. We do not measure it;
the men let in little water, and they
know when the dough is right"
Two men were leaning over the tubs
that had apparently been put in the room
BY the builder for wash tubs. They al.
lowed the water to run slowly from the
faucets into the mixture of flour, all the
time stirring, lifting. punching, and
pulling it with their hands as If death
awaited their first stop to rest.
ut is very exhausting work." said
the boss. ..When they can work no
longer two others, who are resting in the
next room, will take their places. They
shift IS often as every hour some days.
When it is thoroughly mixed the dough
is kneaded on the table,"
The table is . big stout one, built on
the opposite side of the room. Two
long levers projected over it, the ends
of which were loosely fastened to the
wall short distance above the table by
stout swivels. Round blocks, like pes
ties, were suspended under the levers.
The dough, in huge patches. was placed
under the levers, and then three men
took hold of each lever, adjusted
the pestles over the dough, and threw
their weight on them. They worked
the levers in short arcs of circles, and
their exertions made . dough at once
stiff and hard, and yet withal very
tough and tenacious.
'How do you make it into strings?'
THAT is easy. See."
Some men were placing huge loaf of
the dough into vertical copper cylin-
der with a strong screw above il, the
machine looking something like an old
fashioned hand cider press. On top of
the dough the men placed piston that
tit the cylinder nicely, and then they ran
the screw down on it. They then
clapped hold ofsthree long levers and
began to walk around, but they did not
walk rapidly nor easily. When the
screw began to get a good hold. little
slender streams of dough shot down
through small perforatiOns in the bot
tom of the cylinders. As fast as they
reached q length of two feet or more
they were cut off by q man who hung
them over wooden frames and carried
them away.
1--WE dry them on those frames eight
days." said the boss. when the air is
moist we dry them longer. Big holes in
the cylinder make macaroni; little holes
vermicelli. Some times it is rolled thin.
like sheet of paper, and cut up with
razors into different shapes. We call the
pieces semaza di n,eloni, or what you
call melon seed; capelletti-little hats,
and occhi di pernici-partridge eye, &C.
cording to the shapes. These are used
to thicken soup, but we do not make
much of them. The macaroni has the
largest sale. but only Italians can cook
it. It is easy to say boil it in pure water.
dress it with concentrated meat gravy
and grated cheese. and serve it hot, but
who can do it? In Genoa the macaroni
is colored with saffron. Neapolitans
use only pure flour and pure water.
When Neapolitan macaroni is cooked by
an Italian it has 3 very faint greenish
tinge. In Italy the King, the lazzaroni,
all eat macaroni every day. You should
see them. Zobini, there at the tub. he
can swallow \ macaroni three feet long
and never break it. No man can do SO
well in this building. If Zobini were in
his own country he would be famous
man; but he would have no gravy MOI
cheese with his macaroni, so he stays
here. IN Y. Sun.