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Milanese Polenta

A baked polenta dish with layers of butter, Parmesan, sausage, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Milanese Polenta

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the polenta

  1. Prepare polenta according to package instructions, making it not too thick.

  2. Once cooled, cut polenta into shapes to line a buttered mold.

Fill the mold

  1. Sprinkle the inside of the mold with grated Parmesan.

  2. Fill the mold with layers of polenta, slices of Parmesan, and cooked sausage meat.

  3. Add a few bits of butter and sprinkle with pepper.

  4. Cover with a disc of polenta, about 1/4 inch thick.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Parmesan cheese + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together269 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Polenta
Forms the firm, sliceable body of the dish as it cools and sets.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the layers and adds savory, salty flavor and browning at the surface.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavor through the layers as it bakes.
Sausage meat or forcemeat
Supplies the meaty filling and fat that keeps the layers moist during baking.

The step that matters

Make the polenta not too thick. Polenta thickens further as it cools and sets, so a stiff mix becomes hard to cut into shapes that line the mold. A looser mix stays workable and bakes into layers that hold together when sliced.

“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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