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Minced Veal and Macaroni

A baked casserole of minced veal and macaroni bound with eggs and breadcrumbs, topped 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. Trim the brown outside from the veal and mince it finely with the ham.

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

  3. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, then mix in the bread crumbs.

  4. Add 1 or 2 beaten eggs to bind the mixture like forcemeat.

Line and fill the mold

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water, then drain it.

  2. Butter a mold and line it with macaroni at the bottom and sides.

  3. Mix the remaining macaroni with the forcemeat and fill the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with a plate and steam for 30 minutes.

  2. 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

Veal
Provides the main meaty body of the loaf once minced and bound.
Eggs
Bind the minced mixture so it holds its shape like a forcemeat when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the forcemeat a softer, sliceable texture.
Macaroni
Forms a starchy lining and filling that adds structure and bulk to the loaf.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the minced meat.

The step that matters

Steam with the plate covering the mold. Gentle steaming cooks the forcemeat through with moist heat, so it sets firm without drying out. Covering the mold keeps steam around the loaf and holds in moisture.

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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