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Vegetable Marrow, Stuffed

A marrow half filled with a mixture of meat, breadcrumbs, onion, parsley, herbs, egg, and served with brown 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 ↓

Vegetable Marrow, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the marrow

  1. Peel the marrow, cut it in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds.

  2. Boil in salted water for about 10 minutes until half cooked, then drain well.

Stuff and bake

  1. Mix together all ingredients except the brown sauce.

  2. Fill the cavities of the marrow with the mixture and reassemble the halves.

  3. Secure with string, baste with hot fat, and lightly dredge with flour.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until well browned.

  5. Alternatively, brush with egg and coat with browned breadcrumbs before baking.

  6. Serve the brown sauce separately.

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

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Marrow
Forms the edible shell that holds the filling and softens as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together and, brushed on top, helps the crumbs brown.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body, and can form a browned crust.
Raw or cooked meat
Provides the savoury, rich flavour and substance of the filling.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury depth when served alongside the baked marrow.

The step that matters

Boil until half cooked. Partial boiling softens the marrow so it cooks through in the oven without turning mushy. Draining well keeps excess water from diluting the filling and stopping browning.

Swap the onion

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

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

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