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Vegetable Marrow with Cheese

A baked dish of marrows topped with butter, cream, Parmesan cheese, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Vegetable Marrow with Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Peel or scrape the rind of the marrows and cut them into quarters lengthwise.

  2. Scoop out the seedy parts and place them in a sauté pan with butter.

Cook

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, shaking occasionally.

  2. Moisten with cream and add grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the marrows to an oblong dish, dust with bread crumbs and additional Parmesan cheese.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes and serve with sauce around the dish.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Green marrows
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when cooked through.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the marrows brown lightly in the pan.
Cream
Adds moisture and forms a rich sauce around the marrows.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and browns on top when baked.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden crust on the surface during baking.

The step that matters

Baking the topping. Bread crumbs and cheese brown quickly in a hot oven, so the topping can scorch if left too long. Watch closely and bake only until golden.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, cream, parmesan cheese, bread):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, parmesan cheese, bread. 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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