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Macaroni and Meat Shape

A steamed dish of macaroni, minced meat, egg, and seasonings formed into shapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Macaroni and Meat Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Cook macaroni in boiling salted water until soft.

  2. Strain the macaroni and cut it into neat pieces.

Prepare the basin

  1. Grease a basin with dripping.

  2. Line the basin with the macaroni.

Make the filling

  1. Soak the bread in cold water, then squeeze it dry in a cloth.

  2. Mix all ingredients well together.

Steam and serve

  1. Press the mixture into the prepared basin.

  2. Cover with a lid or buttered paper.

  3. Steam for 1 hour.

  4. Turn out the dish.

  5. Serve with gravy.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the dish its savoury body.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds together when steamed and turned out.
Stale bread
Soaked and squeezed, it adds moisture and softness to the filling.
Macaroni
Lines the basin, giving the turned-out dish a firm, structured outer shell.
White sauce or gravy
Adds moisture and binding to the mixture, helping it hold together.

The step that matters

Squeezing the bread dry. Bread soaked in water holds excess liquid; if it is not squeezed dry, the filling becomes wet and loose, so it may not hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, parsley, bread, egg, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, parsley, bread, egg, sauce. 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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