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Macaroni Veal

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

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 400°F (200°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, egg, and enough stock to moisten.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pie dish.

Add the macaroni and bake

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

  2. Top with fine bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°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
Forms the main body of the filling and gives it a savoury, meaty texture.
Egg
Binds the minced meat mixture so it holds together when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the stock and juices, helping the filling stay moist and set.
Macaroni
Forms a starchy layer on top that becomes tender and holds the pie together.
Butter
Adds fat to the topping, encouraging golden browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Finish under the broiler if not browned. Oven heat alone may leave the crumb topping pale. A brief blast from the broiler browns the surface quickly, but it can scorch fast, so watch closely.

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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