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Virginia Noodles

A baked casserole of boiled noodles, cheese, bread, egg, and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Virginia Noodles

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble the casserole

  1. Layer boiled noodles in a baking dish.

  2. Add grated cheese on top of the noodles.

  3. Sprinkle coarse sea salt and black pepper over the cheese.

  4. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

  5. Dot the top with butter.

  6. Cover the top with thin slices of bread.

Add the custard and bake

  1. Beat the egg and mix it with the sweet milk.

  2. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the dish.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the liquid is set.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Sets the milk mixture into a custard that holds the layers together.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid that soaks the noodles and bread and then sets with the egg.
Grated cheese
Adds fat and savory flavor and melts through the layers.
Noodles
Form the bulk of the casserole and soak up the custard as it bakes.
Slices of bread
Soak up the custard on top and brown as the casserole bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until the liquid is set. Egg proteins set as the custard heats, so pulling the dish too early leaves a runny middle, while overbaking can make the custard dry and 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.

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