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Roman Meat Pudding

A savory pudding made with vermicelli, cold cooked meats, stock, egg, tomato sauce, and macaroni, steamed and served with white sauce.

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

  1. Parboil the vermicelli in salted water for 10 minutes, then drain.

  2. Mince the cold cooked meats finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the minced meats, stock, egg, tomato sauce, and parboiled vermicelli.

  2. Season the mixture with onion, parsley, salt, and pepper, and mix well.

Mould and steam

  1. Line a greased mold with the cooked macaroni.

  2. Fill the mold with the meat mixture and cover it.

  3. Steam for 30 minutes.

  4. Turn out of the mold and 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 cooked meats
Provide the bulk and savoury flavour of the pudding.
Egg
Binds the meat and vermicelli so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Vermicelli
Adds body and soft texture to the filling as it absorbs moisture.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour, keeping the filling tender during steaming.
Cooked macaroni
Forms a starchy outer shell that holds the filling together in the mold.

The step that matters

Steam for 30 minutes. The egg must set fully to bind the filling; steaming gently and evenly sets it without drying or curdling the mixture, so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.

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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