This comes to us via The Food Section: Appetizers, via Nuggets. In American Treasures of the Library of Congress you can find a facsimiles of a number of historical documents, including Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence, but more importantly, his plans for a pasta machine, and his recipe for vanilla ice cream.
Maccaroni
The best maccaroni [sic] in Italy is made with a particular sort of flour called Semolina, in Naples: but in almost every shop a different sort of flour is commonly used; for, provided the flower be of a good quality, not ground extremely fine, it will always do very well. A paste is made with flour, water, & less yeast than is used for making bread. This paste is then put, a little at a time, with about 5. or 6. lb each time into a round iron box ABC. The under part of which is perforated with holes, through which the pasta when pressed by the screw DEF, comes out, and forms the maccaroni g.g.g. which when sufficiently long, are cut & spread to dry. The screw is turned by a lever inserted into the hole L of which there are 4. or 6. It is evident that on turning the screw one way, the cylindrical part F, which fits the iron box or mortar perfectly well, must press upon the paste and must force it out of the holes. LIM is a strong wooden frame, properly fastened to the wall, floor & ceiling of the room.
N.O. is a figure on a larger scale of the holes in the iron plate, where all the black is solid, and the rest is open. The real plate has a great many holes, and is screwed to the box or mortar: or rather there is a set of plates which may be changed at will, with holes of different shapes & sizes for the different sorts of maccaroni. [Thomas Jefferson]