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 ↓
Macaroni with Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the macaroni
Cook the macaroni in boiling water until tender, then drain.
Assemble and serve
Add sweet cream, butter, pepper, and salt to the macaroni and let it simmer for a short time.
Transfer the mixture to a vegetable dish.
Pour the seasoned stewed tomatoes over the macaroni.
Alternatively, layer cooked macaroni in a baking dish, season with butter, salt, and pepper, then add a layer of tomatoes, repeating until the dish is filled.
Cover the top with bread crumbs and bake at 350°F (175°C) until brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Forms the starchy base that holds the sauce and tomatoes together.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the pasta in a smooth sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, helping the dish feel rich and glossy.
- Stewed tomatoes
- Provide moisture and tangy, acidic flavor that contrasts the rich cream.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned topping when baked.
The step that matters
Bake until brown. Baking until the bread crumb topping is golden adds browning and crunch through the Maillard reaction. Stopping too early leaves the topping pale and soft, while overbaking can dry the dish.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, pepper, bread):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, pepper, bread. 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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