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Minced Veal and Macaroni

A savory dish of minced veal mixed with ham, spices, bread crumbs, eggs, and macaroni, baked in a mold and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Minced Veal and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut slices from a cold fillet of veal.

  2. Trim the brown outside of the veal slices.

  3. Mince the veal finely with the ham.

  4. If the meat is very dry, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of gravy.

  5. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  6. Mix in the bread crumbs and beaten eggs to bind the mixture.

Prepare the mold

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water.

  2. Drain the boiled macaroni.

  3. Butter a mold.

  4. Line the mold with macaroni at the bottom and sides.

  5. Mix the remaining macaroni with the forcemeat.

  6. Fill the mold to the top with the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold with a plate.

  2. Steam for 1 hour.

  3. Turn it out and serve with gravy poured around the meat.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced veal
Forms the main body of the meatloaf and gives its savoury, meaty flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it sets firm when heated.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a tender, starchy texture around and within the loaf.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour and richness to the minced meat.
Gravy
Adds moisture to dry meat and flavours the dish when served.

The step that matters

Fill the mold to the top with the mixture. Packing the mixture firmly and without large air gaps lets it set into a solid, sliceable loaf. Loose packing can crumble when turned out.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, pepper, bread, egg, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, bread, egg, butter. 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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