VERMICELLI

is a paste of wheat flour, drawn out and dried in slender cylinders, more or le tortuous, like worms, whence the Italian name. The gruau of the French is wheat coarsely ground, so as to free it from the husk; the hardest and whitest part, being separated by sifting, is preferred for making the finest bread. When this gruau is a little more ground, and the dust separated from it by the boulting-machine, the granular substance called semoule is obtained, which is the basic of the best pastes. The softest and purest water is said to be nece ary for making the most plastic vermicelli dough; 12 pounds of it being usually added to 50 pounds of semoule . It is better to add more semoule to the water, than water to the semoule , in the act of kneading. The water should be hot, and the dough briskly worked while still warm. The Italians pile one piece of this dough upon another, and then tread it well with their feet for two or three minutes. They afterwards work it for two hours with a powerful rolling-pin, a bar of wood from 10 to 12 feet long, larger at the one end than the other, having a sharp cutting edge at the extremity, attached to the large kneading-trough. When the dough is properly prepared, it is reduced to thin ribands, cylinders, or tubes, to form vermicelli and macaroni of different kinds. This operation is performed by means of a powerful pre . This is vertical, and the iron plate or follower carried by the end of the screw fits exactly into a cast-iron cylinder, called the bell , like a sausage-machine, of which the bottom is perforated with small holes, of the shape and size intended for the vermicelli. The bell being filled, and warmed with a charcoal fire to thin the dough into a paste, this is forced slowly through the holes, and is immediately cooled and dried by a fanner as it protrudes. When the threads or fillets have acquired the length of a foot, they are grasped by the hand, broken off, and twisted, while still flexible, into any desired shape upon a piece of paper. The macaroni requires to be made of a le compact dough than the vermicelli. The former is forced through the perforated bottom, usually in fillets, which are afterwards formed into tubes by joining their edges together before they have had time to become dry. The lazagnes are macaroni left in the fillet or riband shape.