Macaroni
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Macaroni. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a preparation of wheat dough made in the form of strips and tubes. It is an invention of the Italians. The Italian bakers work in small shops. Wheat flour which must be free from bran is mixed with hot water to the consistency of paste. The finer the flour, the finer the macaroni. The paste is placed in a hollow cylinder, the bottom of which is provided with slits, straight or circular. The dough is forced through these slits by a contrivance like a cheese press. The strips are cut into the required lengths as fast as they appear. They are rolled into tubes and hardened by a partial baking. When the paste is forced through small round holes the product is called vermicelli, an Italian name meaning literally "little worms." The difference between the two products is one of size and shape. Both have attained popularity in America, becoming known through Italian restaurants. After it has been boiled and baked, macaroni is served usually with grated cheese. Vermicelli is used chiefly in soups. Numerous factories have been established in the wheat-growing states and provinces of America, but we still import large quantities of Italian manufacture. The varieties of soft wheat that contain a large proportion of gluten, the gum that is secured by chewing a mouthful of wheat, are the best suited for the purpose. Macaroni wheat is well adapted, it is claimed, to certain soils of the semi-arid West. Extraordinarily large yields are reported. Naples, Italy, is the world's center of macaroni making. Naples imports $1,000,000 worth of American durum wheat yearly, and sends America $4,000,000 worth of macaroni in return. See Gluten
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or MACCARONI (ō'nē), an article of food composed of the dough of fine wheaten flour, made into long, slender tubes varying in diameter from one-eighth of an inch to an inch; it is a favorite food in Italy. Figuratively, a fop, a dandy, an exquisite. They led the fashion from 1770 to 1775. They were distinguished by the immense knot of artificial hair worn by them, a very small cocked hat, jacket, waistcoat, and small clothes very tight to the body, and a walking-stick ornamented with long tassels.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's in 1910 described macaroni as "an invention of the Italians" made in "small shops," known to Americans mainly "through Italian restaurants," and thought soft, high-gluten wheat best suited to it; today the standard raw material is semolina from durum, a hard wheat, and North Dakota and Montana grow it by the million acres, with the United States a durum exporter rather than the tributary Aiton's describes sending $1,000,000 of wheat to Naples for $4,000,000 of macaroni back. Continuous extrusion presses replaced the cheese-press screw and hot-air drying rooms replaced the "partial baking," and Kraft's boxed macaroni and cheese, launched in 1937, turned the dish into an American pantry staple rather than a restaurant novelty. The vocabulary moved too: "pasta" is now the general word, "macaroni" in American usage usually means the short elbow shape alone, and Collier's second sense — the 1770s dandy of "Yankee Doodle" — survives only in that song.
Written for this edition, 2026.