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Macaroni and Rice

A baked casserole of macaroni and rice with veal, ham, mushrooms, parsley, and cheese, finished with espagnole or veloute.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni and Rice

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

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then drain and keep warm.

  2. Butter a deep fire-proof baking dish and sprinkle with minced parsley.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the macaroni in short lengths at the bottom of the dish.

  2. Add a layer of minced veal, then minced ham, and sprinkle with grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Repeat the layering until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of cheese on top.

  4. Moisten the layers well with espagnole or veloute.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through and the top is browned.

  6. Serve 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy base layers that hold the casserole together when cooked.
Minced veal
Supplies the main meat body and savoury flavour in each layer.
Minced ham
Adds salty, savoury depth to the meat layers.
Grated cheese
Melts into the layers and browns on top for flavour and colour.
Espagnole or veloute
Sauce that moistens the layers so the casserole stays juicy while baking.

The step that matters

Moistening the layers well. Pasta and minced meat absorb liquid as they bake. Without enough sauce the macaroni can dry out and the casserole turns firm and crumbly rather than moist.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, mushroom, pepper, cheese, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, mushroom, pepper, cheese, 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.

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