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Maccaroxi Mould of Fowl with Truffles

A stuffed macaroni mould filled with stewed fowl, truffles, and a beef marrow‑flour paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Maccaroxi Mould of Fowl with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the bones of the fowl in 1½ cups of water until reduced to ½ cup of strong gravy.

  2. Cool the gravy.

  3. Add the fowl pieces, white pepper, coarse sea salt, lemon rind, powdered mace, and sliced truffles to the gravy. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a basin and let it cool.

  5. Soak the macaroni in water for 30 minutes.

Make the paste and line the mould

  1. Rub the beef marrow into the flour, add salt, and the beaten egg yolk mixed with ½ cup of cold water. Knead into a firm paste.

  2. Grease a plain oval pudding mould with butter.

  3. Dry the macaroni and cut it to fit the mould, covering the bottom and sides.

  4. Brush the macaroni with egg white.

  5. Roll out the paste and fit it into the mould, ensuring it adheres well.

Steam and serve

  1. Add the fowl mixture and a tablespoon of fresh cream, then cover with the paste.

  2. Tie a cloth over the mould.

  3. Steam over fast‑boiling water for 2 hours.

  4. Carefully turn out and serve immediately.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Truffle + beeftop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Fowl
Provides the main meat and, with its bones, the rich gravy that moistens the filling.
Naples macaroni
Forms a pasta lining that holds its shape and gives the molded dish structure.
All-purpose flour
Forms the firm paste that wraps the mould and holds the filling together during steaming.
Beef marrow
Enriches the paste with fat, adding tenderness and richness to the crust.
Egg yolk
Binds the paste and adds richness and colour to the crust.
Truffles
Adds a strong earthy aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Steam over fast-boiling water for the full 2 hours. Steaming gently cooks the paste and filling through without drying them. If the water stops boiling vigorously, the temperature drops and the mould cooks unevenly and may come out heavy or undercooked.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, mace, truffle, beef, flour, egg, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, mace, truffle, beef, flour, 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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