Skip to main content
Main

Cannelon with Macaroni

A baked meat roll stuffed with macaroni, served with cheese sauce, lemon, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Cannelon with Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meat roll

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped beef, pork, soaked bread crumbs, beaten eggs, onion juice, mace, salt, and pepper.

  3. Form the mixture into a roll and place it in a baking dish.

  4. Bake the roll in the preheated oven until cooked through.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Meanwhile, cook the macaroni according to package instructions.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the flour, salt, and pepper to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add water or milk to the roux, stirring until smooth, then add the grated cheese until melted.

Serve

  1. Once the roll is cooked, place it on a large platter surrounded by the macaroni and pour the cheese sauce over it.

  2. Garnish the roll with a slice of lemon and a sprig of 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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Beef
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the meat roll.
Eggs
Bind the meat and bread crumbs so the roll holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Add moisture and softness, keeping the meat roll tender rather than dense.
Butter
Forms the fat base of the roux that thickens the cheese sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux, giving the cheese sauce body.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding richness and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Making the roux and sauce. Flour must cook briefly in melted butter before liquid is added, otherwise the sauce tastes raw. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps it smooth rather than lumpy. Cheese should be stirred in over gentle heat so it melts evenly without turning grainy or stringy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, bread, egg, onion, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, bread, egg, onion, pepper, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes