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Minced Veal and Macaroni

A molded dish of minced veal mixed with macaroni, bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings, steamed or baked and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Minced Veal and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut slices from a cold fillet of veal, trim off the brown outside, and mince the meat finely with the ham.

  2. Mince the veal very fine, removing all skin and outside pieces, and chop the bacon.

  3. Mix the bacon with the minced veal, adding lemon peel, onion, seasoning, mace, and toast.

Make the forcemeat

  1. If the meat is very dry, add a spoonful of good gravy.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, add grated nutmeg and bread crumbs, and mix with 1 or 2 eggs well beaten to bind.

  3. Heat an egg and use it to bind the mixture.

Line and fill the mould

  1. Boil macaroni in salted water and drain.

  2. Butter a mould, place some macaroni at the bottom and sides.

  3. Mix remaining macaroni with the forcemeat mixture and fill the mould to the top.

Cook and serve

  1. Put a plate or small dish on top and steam for 1/2 hour.

  2. Turn out carefully and serve with good gravy poured around, but not over, the meat.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

434Calories
19 gProtein
29 gFat
25 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
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot 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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal (in the method)
Forms the main body of the loaf, giving it its meaty texture and substance.
Eggs
Bind the minced meat and forcemeat so the mixture holds together when turned out.
Macaroni (in the method)
Adds bulk and a tender, pasta-like texture that contrasts with the minced meat.
Toast soaked in milk
Absorbs moisture and keeps the forcemeat soft and light rather than dense.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that enriches the lean veal.

The step that matters

Steam with a weight on top. Steaming gently sets the egg-bound forcemeat without drying it. The plate on top keeps the mixture compact so it holds its shape when turned out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, lemon, butter, milk, egg, pepper, mace):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, lemon, butter, milk, egg, pepper, mace. 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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