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A Mould of Noodles, with Ham

A baked casserole of noodles, ham, eggs, milk, and breadcrumbs, served hot.

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 ↓

A Mould of Noodles, with Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the noodles

  1. Make noodles from 1 egg and let them dry.

  2. Boil water with salt and cook the noodles for 5 minutes.

Assemble in the mold

  1. Butter a quart mold and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Line the mold with cooled noodles.

  3. Layer chopped ham and noodles alternately until full.

  4. Beat 2 eggs and mix with 1 cup milk.

  5. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  6. Cover with a plate.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 hour.

  2. Turn out onto a platter.

  3. Serve hot, garnished with spinach or sauerkraut.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the custard and set it firm when baked, holding the layers together.
Milk
Forms the liquid custard that moistens the noodles and ham as it bakes.
Chopped ham
Supplies the savory, meaty flavour that runs through the layers.
Noodles (in the method)
Form the body of the casserole, soaking up the custard as it sets.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the mold. The custard must fill the gaps between the noodles and ham so the eggs can set evenly. Gaps left unfilled leave pockets that cannot hold the casserole together when turned out.

“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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