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Macaroni Veal

A baked casserole of minced veal and ham with macaroni, seasoned with herbs and spices, topped with butter and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Macaroni Veal

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 the filling

  1. Mix the minced veal, minced ham, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, mace, parsley, lemon peel, thyme, marjoram, lemon juice, whisked egg, and enough stock to moisten.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pie dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender, about 30 minutes, then layer it over the veal mixture.

  2. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs and bits of butter on top.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.

  4. If not browned, finish under the broiler.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and structure of the filling.
Egg
Binds the minced meat and bread crumbs so the filling holds together when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the stock and help give the filling a tender, sliceable texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the topping and helps it brown in the oven.
Macaroni
Forms a starchy layer over the filling that adds bulk and body to the casserole.

The step that matters

Browning the topping under the broiler. Broiling is quick and close to the heat, so the topping can scorch before it browns evenly. Watch it closely and remove the dish as soon as the crumbs turn golden.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, bread, pepper, parsley, lemon, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, bread, pepper, parsley, lemon, thyme. 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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