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Chicken and Macaroni

A baked casserole of shredded chicken, macaroni, butter, cream, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and macaroni

  1. Boil the chicken until very tender, then remove all bones and finely shred the meat.

  2. Break the macaroni into 1-inch pieces and boil until tender.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep pudding dish and layer the cooked macaroni on the bottom.

  2. Add a layer of minced chicken, bits of butter, pepper, salt, and some chicken broth.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is filled.

  4. Pour 1 cup of cream over the top and bake for 30 minutes.

  5. Serve on a platter.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and savory meat that forms the body of the casserole.
Macaroni
Forms the starchy base layers that hold the dish together and absorb the cooking liquids.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the layers.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, setting into a tender custard-like texture as it bakes.

The step that matters

Boil the chicken until very tender. The chicken must be fully tender before shredding, because the meat is cooked again in the oven and tough meat only becomes drier with extra heat.

“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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