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Macaroni Cutlets

A fried cutlet made from boiled macaroni, egg, herbs, onion, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg well and mix it with the macaroni cut into small pieces.

  2. Add the herbs, grated onion, pepper, salt, and enough breadcrumbs to hold the mixture together.

  3. Shape the mixture into cutlets.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cutlet in egg and then in breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in butter or vegetable butter until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with vegetables.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the bulk and body of the cutlet, holding its shape once cut into small pieces.
Egg
Binds the macaroni and crumbs together so the cutlets hold their shape while frying.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.
Onion
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Adding breadcrumbs to the mixture. Too few breadcrumbs leave the mixture too wet to shape, so cutlets may fall apart in the pan. Adding just enough crumbs absorbs excess moisture from the egg and onion so the mixture holds together.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, 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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