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Macaroni a LA Sicilienne

Baked macaroni with veal, ham, mushrooms, parsley, sauce, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni a LA Sicilienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender.

  2. Drain the macaroni and cut into short lengths.

  3. Butter a deep fireproof baking dish.

  4. Sprinkle the dish with minced parsley.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the macaroni, minced veal, minced ham, and minced mushroom in the dish.

  2. Dust each layer with grated cheese.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Moisten the layers with good domestic espagnole or velouté sauce.

  5. Bake until heated through and the surface is browned.

  6. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and structure of the bake, holding the layers together when cut.
Minced veal
Provides the main meat body and savoury richness in each layer.
Minced ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that carries through the layers.
Grated cheese
Melts into the layers and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour.
Espagnole or velouté sauce (in the method)
Moistens the layers so the pasta and meat stay tender rather than dry during baking.

The step that matters

Moisten the layers with sauce. Pasta and minced meat dry out in the oven if the layers are not moistened enough. The sauce must soak through the layers before baking so the bake stays moist while the surface browns.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

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