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Veal, with Macaroni

A baked casserole of finely chopped veal, onions, macaroni, tomato sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal, with Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Season the chopped veal with pepper and salt.

  2. Fry the onions until brown.

  3. Boil the macaroni until tender.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the veal, onions, macaroni, and tomato sauce together.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pie dish.

  3. Cover with bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the dish.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a tender, starchy texture that soaks up the savory juices.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth when fried until brown.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity that bind the mixture together.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the topping and encourages browning.

The step that matters

Fry the onions until brown. Onions turn brown through the Maillard reaction and caramelization, which build sweetness and savory flavor. Pale onions taste raw and thin, so they should be cooked long enough to color fully before mixing.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, tomato, sauce, bread, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, tomato, sauce, bread, butter. 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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