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Ravioli Farce

A savory filling for ravioli made with chicken, ham, parmesan, spinach, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Ravioli Farce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the chicken, ham, parmesan, egg yolk, spinach, and cream in a mortar.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, and chopped parsley.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Use the filling as directed for ravioli.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Spinach + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein body and bulk of the filling.
Egg yolk
Binds the pounded mixture together and helps it set when cooked.
Parmesan
Adds savory depth and salty flavour to the filling.
Double cream
Adds moisture and richness so the filling stays soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Pounding leaves fibres and lumps that make the filling coarse. Pushing it through a fine sieve breaks these down, giving a smooth texture that spreads evenly and does not tear the pasta.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, egg, spinach, cream, nutmeg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, egg, spinach, cream, nutmeg, pepper. 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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