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Roman Meat Pudding

A steamed meat pudding made with vermicelli, cold meats, stock, egg, tomato sauce, and macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Roman Meat Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pasta

  1. Break up the vermicelli.

  2. Parboil the vermicelli in salted water for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain the vermicelli.

Make the filling

  1. Mince the cold meats finely.

  2. Combine the minced meats, stock, egg, tomato sauce, and parboiled vermicelli in a bowl.

  3. Mix the mixture well.

  4. Season the mixture with onion, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a mold.

  2. Line the mold with the cooked macaroni.

  3. Fill the mold with the meat mixture.

  4. Cover the mold.

  5. Steam for 30 minutes.

  6. Turn the pudding out of the mold.

  7. Serve with white sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Cold meats
Form the bulk of the pudding and give it its savory, meaty flavor.
Egg
Binds the minced meat and vermicelli so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Stock
Adds moisture and flavor, keeping the filling tender as it steams.
Vermicelli
Provides starch and body that helps the filling hold together.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity, color and savory depth to the filling.
Cooked macaroni
Lines the mold, giving the pudding a firm outer shell and structure.

The step that matters

Turn the pudding out of the mold. The egg sets as the pudding steams, so it needs time to firm up before unmolding. Turning it out too early can cause it to break apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, egg, tomato, sauce, parsley, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, tomato, sauce, parsley, pepper. 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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