Name: Macaroni and Fish
Ingredients: ¼ pound well-boiled macaroni, cut into small pieces; ¼ pound cold boiled fish, skin and bones removed; ½ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ cup good fish or chicken broth; 1 ounce butter

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Macaroni and Fish

Ingredients

¼ pound well-boiled macaroni, cut into small pieces
¼ pound cold boiled fish, skin and bones removed
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup good fish or chicken broth
1 ounce butter

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Bake

In a bowl, mix the macaroni and fish together with pepper, salt, broth, and butter.
Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.
Bake in the oven until hot and browned.

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.

Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a tender, starchy body.
Fish: Provides the main protein and flavor, flaking into the bake as it heats.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the surface brown in the oven.
Broth: Adds moisture and savory flavor so the mixture does not dry out while baking.

The step that matters

Bake until hot and browned. The mixture must be heated through so the fish is safely hot, and the surface needs enough time in the oven to brown. Pulling it too early leaves a pale, lukewarm center.

“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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Macaroni and Fish