Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Stuffed Vegetable Marrow
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the marrow
Cut the vegetable marrow in half lengthwise and blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Remove all the seeds and fill the cavity with the minced veal and ham or chicken and ham.
Cook and serve
Add salt, pepper, lemon juice, and the beaten egg to the filling.
Tie the vegetable marrow tightly together and cook gently in stock or milk.
Pour some stock or milk over the vegetable marrow when serving.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 edible shell that holds the filling while it cooks gently.
- Minced veal and ham
- Provides the meaty filling that gives the dish its savoury body.
- Egg
- Binds the minced filling so it holds together when cooked.
- Stock or milk
- Keeps the marrow moist during gentle cooking and forms the serving liquid.
The step that matters
Cook gently in stock or milk. Tying the marrow tightly and cooking it gently keeps the filling bound and moist. Boiling hard can break the shell and toughen the egg-set filling.
“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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