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Round the Table

A macaroni dish baked with butter, flour, parmesan, mustard, cream, and veal stock, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Round the Table

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni.

  2. Optionally, boil the macaroni in milk instead of water.

  3. Drain the boiled macaroni.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt one ounce of butter.

  2. Stir in one tablespoonful of flour until well mixed.

  3. Add four tablespoonfuls of veal stock and a gill of cream, and stir.

  4. Add two ounces of grated Parmesan, one tablespoonful of mustard, salt, and cayenne to taste, and stir.

  5. Add the drained macaroni to the sauce and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the boiled macaroni on a dish with plenty of butter and grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Add a little pepper.

  3. Sprinkle the top freely with Parmesan to cover the macaroni completely.

  4. Brown the cheese on top using a salamander or direct heat, being careful not to dry the macaroni.

  5. Serve very hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

733Calories
24 gProtein
26 gFat
99 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor. 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. See the original page.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the dish and carries the sauce and cheese.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the sauce coat the pasta.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce.
Parmesan
Adds salty, savoury flavour and melts into the sauce, then browns on top.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a silky texture.
Veal stock
Adds savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the cheese on top. High direct heat can quickly dry out the macaroni and scorch the cheese before it melts and turns golden. Watching closely and stopping as soon as the top is browned keeps the dish moist.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, veal, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, veal, pepper. 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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