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Vegetable Marrow

Roasted vegetable marrow topped with butter, parsley, and optional sauce, finished with Parmesan and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Vegetable Marrow

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut the vegetable marrow into sections and remove the rind and seeds.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the marrow in the oven, basting with butter or dripping.

  2. Sprinkle with parsley before serving, or pour Dutch sauce or Mayonnaise sauce over it.

Make the au gratin

  1. For au Gratin, pass the baked marrow through a tamis, add a little cream, and place in a shallow dish.

  2. Spread finely scraped Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs on top, then finish baking in the oven.

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 + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Parsley + parmesan cheesetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,799 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Vegetable marrow
Forms the bulk of the dish and softens into a tender, moist base when baked.
Butter or dripping
Adds fat and richness, and helps the marrow brown as it bakes.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour to the gratin crust.
Breadcrumbs
Toast in the oven to form a crisp, golden topping over the marrow.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Pepperfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, parmesan cheese. 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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