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Meat with Macaroni

A layered casserole of mutton or veal with macaroni, ham or bacon, forcemeat, and bread crumbs, baked in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Meat with Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Place the meat on a plate and sprinkle with pepper and chopped herbs.

  2. Pour the stock over the meat and cover it for a short time.

  3. Grease a deep dish and dredge the bottom and sides with bread crumbs.

  4. Boil the macaroni until half cooked, about ½ pound.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the dish with forcemeat, then add a layer of cooked ham or bacon.

  2. Place the piece of meat on top, add more bacon, and cover with another layer of forcemeat.

  3. Cover the dish and set it in a tin of hot water in a moderate oven (350°F) for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the tin and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Finish the macaroni in stock or sauce.

  2. Turn the meat onto a hot dish and arrange the macaroni around it.

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

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 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

Mutton or veal fillet
Provides the main meat, which turns tender and moist during gentle baking in water.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and starch that absorbs stock and sauce, holding the casserole together.
Forcemeat
Forms a seasoned layer that binds and cushions the meat within the dish.
Ham or bacon
Adds savoury fat and salty flavour that permeates the layers.
Stock
Supplies moisture and flavour that keeps the meat juicy during cooking.

The step that matters

Baking in a tin of hot water. The water bath moderates the heat around the covered dish, so the meat cooks gently and stays moist rather than drying or toughening at the edges.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, ham, bread. 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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