The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-20
MAcARoNi IN MANY FORMS.
Sixty Kinds From Naples-The Clean
Kind From Genoa.

From the New York sun.
About 100000 boxes of Neapolitan mac
aroni will be Imported into the United
States this year This Is the macaroni
most used by both native Americans
and Italians residents, not because it is
the best, but because it is the cheapest
imported and because It comes in the
greatest variety of forms
There are fully sixty forms of Neapol-
itan macaroni. Native Americans know
and use only few of these, Italian resi-
dents most of the three score The nice
ties Of macaroni eating are really a seal
ed mystery to most Americans.
The Italian residents use in winter and
spring the pastina or small paste, in
forms suitable for mixing with soup. In
hot weather they use more comonly the
pasta lunga. All the year round they
use the forms known as. spaghetti, ma
caroncelli and perciatelll.
The soup pastes are not only in the IA
miliar alphabetical form, but in a dozen
others, as anchors, stars, little seeds and
the like. The retailer has but To indicate
his wish to the factory and supply the
perforated plate in order to get any new
or strange form made. The shell like soup
paste called chglie is made by hand in
Italy, but it sells for very little more than
the machine made forms.
Neapoltan macaron is dried i'm the sun,
as any one knows who has seen it hang
ing in the dust of busy streets in Italy
and even in New York. Now. the Geno-
vese paste is dried upon shallow shelves
IN big airy rooms. This accounts in part
for the higher price of the Genovese ma
caroni.
Most well to do Italians prefer the
Genovese to the Neapolitan paste, but
the mass even of north Italians prefer the
Neapoitan. The total Importation Of
Genovese macaroni is hardly one-twentl-
eth of the Neapoltian Importation.
There are perhaps forty different forms
of Genovese paste, but It Is best known
as white yellow (Which is colored and
slightly favored with saffron, and the
paste with egg. which is also somewhat
yellow The chief forms are like those
best known among the Neapolitan forms,
but there is a thin, almost hair like paste
made In Genoa which differs from any
Neapolitan paste.
Sicilian paste is not much imported and
is used mainly by native Americans save
in regions whore there lis large Sicilian
colony. 1t comes mostly In paper pack
ages, and In the forms known specifically
as spaghetti and macaroni, though there
are many forms like those of the Nea-
politan and not so good as the Geno-
vese.
Tuscan paste is little known to native
Americans. though it has a great reputa-
ton in Italy for special purposes and is
the most expensive made. 1t is mostly
small paste like that used in soups Tus-
can paste for the sick is put up in packa-
ges of from nine ounces to two pounds.
That made from the best wheat Of
northern Italy is held to be more delicate
and nourishlng than that made in other
parts of Italy. Gluten paste is a Tuscan
product made specially for persons OF
weak digestion or deficient nourishment
There Is also a double gluten Tuscan
paste much used by dyspeptcs and con
sumptives. and there is special shell-like
form that is priced much above the chglie
of Naples The best Tuscan paste retails
in this country at fully 1G cents a pound
II Is oftenest used with soup, though it IS
used also dry with sauce.
American nacaroni most often initiates
the forms OF the Genovese An expert in
macaronl says that the best in this coun-
try is made In Texas from Nebraska win
ter wheat There are scores and perhaps
hundreds of small macaroni factories In
the italian quarters of American cities
and there are besides few large factories
where macaron is made commercially on
large scale
There are three such In and near New
York. there is one at Pittsburg and there
are few scattered throughout the west.
In spite of their activity the American
factories are quite unable to supply the
domestic market