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Macaroni and Veal Pie

A baked pie with macaroni, veal, bacon or ham, white gravy, cheese, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and cheese work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni and Veal Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry shell

  1. Line a raised pie mold with puff pastry and fill it with flour.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry is pale brown.

  3. Remove the flour.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then drain and cut into pieces about ½ inch long.

  2. In a pot, combine the veal, bacon or ham, and white gravy.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the meat mixture, macaroni, and grated cheese in the mold, repeating until full, with cheese on top.

  2. Bake in the oven until heated through.

  3. Brown the top with a broiler.

  4. Remove from the mold and serve.

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. Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the pie its body and chew.
Veal
Provides the main meat flavour and substance of the filling.
White gravy
Adds moisture and binds the filling so it holds together when sliced.
Grated cheese
Melts into the filling and browns on top, adding richness and flavour.
Bacon or ham
Adds salty, savoury fat that flavours the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Bake the pastry shell until pale brown. Pastry blind-baked with weight or filler that is removed too late or too early can set unevenly or shrink. Baking it until just pale brown sets the structure so it can hold the moist filling without going soggy.

“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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