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Mutton and Macaroni, Browned

A baked macaroni dish with mutton, curry, and butter, topped with egg and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton and Macaroni, Browned

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni until barely tender, then drain and cool.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped mutton, curry powder, coarse sea salt, 1 ounce of butter, beaten egg, and milk thoroughly.

  3. Cut the cooled macaroni into ½‑inch pieces and gently mix it with the mutton mixture.

Bake

  1. Butter a pie tin and form the mixture into a smooth round or oval shape in the center.

  2. Spread ½ ounce of butter over the top and place it in a preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C).

  3. Once heated, cover with a beaten egg seasoned with a pinch of salt and curry powder, then sprinkle with grated bread.

  4. Brown in the oven and serve on a platter garnished with parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and firm, chewy body that holds the bake together.
Mutton
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and substance of the dish.
Egg
Binds the mixture and sets into a custard-like layer when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, helping the egg bind to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Curry powder
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour throughout the mutton and topping.

The step that matters

Browning the top in the oven. The egg topping and grated bread must be heated until set and golden without drying out. Too little heat leaves the top pale and wet, while too long a bake makes the egg rubbery and the crumbs dark.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, egg, milk, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, egg, milk, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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