Skip to main content
Main

Macaroni Outlets

A dish of boiled macaroni and lentils formed into cutlets, fried and served with Brussels sprouts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lentils and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 255 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Macaroni Outlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Put macaroni in cold water to cover, add salt, and boil until soft.

  2. Drain the macaroni and cut into half-inch lengths.

Make the lentil mixture

  1. In a pot, combine chopped onion, lentils, and cold water.

  2. Boil the mixture until soft.

  3. Add butter, sweet herbs, pepper, and salt to the lentil mixture. Mix well.

  4. Stir in the egg and cook until firm without boiling.

  5. Gently mix the macaroni with the lentil mixture.

Shape, fry and serve

  1. Divide the mixture into portions.

  2. Form each portion into a cutlet.

  3. Coat the cutlets in flour.

  4. Fry the cutlets in boiling fat until golden.

  5. Serve the cutlets arranged in a circle with boiled Brussels sprouts in the center.

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. Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + lentilstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lentils + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the bulk and starchy body that holds the cutlet together.
Lentils
Softened and mashed, they give the cutlets their main texture and moisture.
Egg
Sets when cooked, binding the macaroni and lentils into a firm cutlet.
Spanish onion
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the lentil base as it softens.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a softer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg and cook until firm without boiling. Egg proteins set with gentle heat; if the mixture boils or overcooks, the egg can curdle and toughen, making the cutlets crumbly or rubbery rather than cohesive.

Swap the brussels sprouts

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, lentils, butter, 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.

You might also like

Brussels SproutsBrussels Sprouts92 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes