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Macaroni Veal

A baked casserole of minced veal and ham with herbs, topped with macaroni 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 veal mixture

  1. Mix minced veal, minced ham, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, mace, parsley, lemon peel, thyme, marjoram, lemon juice, and whisked egg in a bowl.

  2. Add enough stock to moisten the mixture.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a pie dish.

Layer and bake

  1. Boil macaroni in salted water until tender, about 30 minutes.

  2. Layer the cooked macaroni over the veal mixture.

  3. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs on top.

  4. Dot with butter.

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

  6. 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 casserole and gives it a meaty, savory base.
Egg
Binds the minced meat and crumbs so the filling holds together when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the filling a firmer, more cohesive texture.
Macaroni
Forms the tender top layer that bakes over the meat filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Finish under the broiler if not browned. Broiling browns the top through the Maillard reaction, but it happens fast, so the dish can scorch if left unattended.

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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