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Macaroni Cutlets

Macaroni cutlets are small fried patties made from boiled macaroni mixed with sauce, onion, mace, bacon, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then drain and cool.

  2. Cut the macaroni into small pieces and mix with the white sauce, onion, mace, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the minced bacon and beaten egg, then spread the mixture on a plate.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cold, form small cutlet shapes on a floured board.

  2. Dip each cutlet in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cutlets until lightly browned all over.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the cutlet and gives it a firm, chewy body.
White sauce
Binds the pieces together and adds moisture and a creamy texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture and forms a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and flavour throughout the cutlets.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned crust when fried.

The step that matters

Shape the cutlets only once the mixture is cold. Warm white sauce is soft and loose. As it cools it thickens and sets, so the mixture firms up enough to hold a cutlet shape. Shaping it warm makes it slump and crack.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, onion, pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, onion, pepper, egg, flour. 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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