Name: Vegetable Marrow Stuffed
Ingredients: 1 lb veal; ½ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped; ½ lb ham or good bacon; a few sweet herbs; 2 eggs; 2 oz butter; 2 oz bread crumbs

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Vegetable Marrow Stuffed

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 filling

Mince the veal and ham together, then pound to a paste in a mortar slightly rubbed with garlic.
Pass the mixture through a coarse sieve and return it to the mortar.
Work in the butter, bread crumbs, spices, and the yolks of the eggs.

Stuff and bake

Cut average‑sized vegetable marrows in half and scoop out the seeds.
Fill the marrows with the mixture.
Wrap each marrow in buttered paper tied with string and place them closely together in a buttered tin.
Cover the tin with a plate and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Serve

When done, carefully remove the paper, place the marrows on a dish, and serve with a gravy made from stock, thickened with egg yolk, and a splash of wine or lemon.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal: Forms the main body of the filling and gives it a firm, savoury texture when pounded.
Ham or good bacon: Adds salty, smoky flavour and fat that enriches the meat filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, keeping the filling moist during baking.
Bread crumbs: Absorbs juices and fat, helping the filling hold together and stay tender.
Eggs: Yolks bind the filling so it sets softly when baked.

The step that matters

Cover the tin with a plate and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.. Covering traps steam so the marrow cooks through and the filling stays moist. Baking uncovered would dry the surface, while the egg in the filling needs gentle, even heat to set without becoming rubbery.

“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.