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Vegetable Marrow, Stuffed

A savory dish of marrows filled with seasoned meat, simmered in stock and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Vegetable Marrow, Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the marrows thinly and cut a thick piece off one end of each.

  2. Scoop out the seeds and fill the hollows with sausage meat or minced meat.

  3. Tie the cut pieces back on with twine.

  4. If needed, cut the marrows in half lengthwise, fill, and tie them together.

Braise and serve

  1. Place the marrows in a saucepan, add a slice of butter on each, and sprinkle with pepper, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  2. Pour in the stock and add vinegar.

  3. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for four hours, basting frequently.

  4. Carefully lift the marrows onto a dish, skim the fat from the sauce, strain it over the marrows, and serve.

  5. For extra flavor, rub a clove of garlic in the saucepan before adding the marrows and add tomato juice to the sauce.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

Sausage meat or minced beef or mutton
Forms the savoury filling and adds fat and flavour as it cooks into the marrow.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the marrows and the sauce as they cook.
Stock
Forms the cooking liquid that keeps the marrows moist during the long simmer.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the rich meat and fat.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for four hours. A gentle simmer keeps the marrow tender and the meat cooked through without breaking the marrow apart; a hard boil would toughen the meat and collapse the vegetable. Frequent basting keeps the exposed tops moist.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar, garlic, tomato):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar, garlic, tomato. 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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