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Minced Veal and Macaroni

A baked dish of minced veal and ham mixed with macaroni, breadcrumbs, eggs, and spices, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Minced Veal and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove any brown parts from the veal and mince the rest with the ham.

  2. Add pepper, salt, nutmeg, breadcrumbs, and enough beaten egg to bind and moisten the mixture.

Line and fill the mold

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water and line the bottom and sides of a buttered mold with it.

  2. Mix any leftover macaroni with the forcemeat and fill the mold to the top with the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Place a plate on top of the mold and steam for 1 hour.

  2. Turn out and serve with gravy.

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

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 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

Cold roast veal
Forms the main body of the forcemeat, giving it its meaty bulk and texture.
Eggs
Bind the minced mixture together and moisten it so it holds its shape when steamed.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the forcemeat stay tender and hold together.
Macaroni
Lines the mold, forming a decorative shell around the forcemeat once turned out.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the minced meat mixture.

The step that matters

Binding the forcemeat with egg. Too little egg leaves the mixture crumbly, while too much makes it wet and dense. Enough beaten egg gives a mixture that holds together when steamed and unmoulded.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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