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Chicken and Macaroni

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

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

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.

Prepare

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

  2. Boil the macaroni until tender, then cut it into small pieces about 1 inch long.

Assemble

  1. Butter a 2-quart charlotte-russe tin and line it with the pieces of macaroni.

  2. Layer the shredded chicken in the tin, seasoning it with the boiled-down liquid, salt, pepper, and a little butter.

  3. Add a layer of macaroni, then repeat the layers until the dish is filled.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cream over the entire dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. 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. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper 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 bulk of the savoury meat, and its cooking liquid adds moisture and flavour to the layers.
Macaroni
Forms the starchy layers that hold the casserole together and soak up the seasoned liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture that thickens and sets gently as the casserole bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top and tin surfaces brown lightly.

The step that matters

Pour the cream over the entire dish and bake. Cream needs to reach the lower layers and bake gently so it sets into a custard rather than separating or drying out. Overheating can cause curdling and a dry, tough texture.

“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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