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Macaroni Cutlets

Macaroni cutlets are fried balls of macaroni, cheese, and mustard, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil macaroni in salted water until tender, then cut into ½‑inch pieces.

  2. Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour gradually, and stir until cooked.

  3. Mix in macaroni, cheese, mustard, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne.

Shape and coat

  1. Let the mixture cool, then form into cutlets or balls.

  2. Dip in beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.

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

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides bulk and a starchy body that holds the cutlet shape.
Cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and helps bind the mixture together.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that helps bind the mixture.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick to the cutlets.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer layer when fried.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool, then form into cutlets or balls.. Cooling lets the flour-thickened mixture firm up enough to hold its shape. Shaping it while hot leaves it soft, so cutlets can slump or tear during coating and frying.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, flour, milk, egg, bread, pepper, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, flour, milk, egg, bread, pepper, parsley. 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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