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Macaroni Bechamel

A baked macaroni dish layered with a spiced ground meat filling and a béchamel white sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,030 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven350°F
Time30 to 35 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • Filling
  • Bechamel Sauce

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a large skillet cook the meat, onion and garlic until the meat is brown and the onion is tender.

  2. Drain fat.

  3. Stir in the tomato sauce, parsley, oregano, salt, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and 1/3 cup of water.

  4. Bring to boiling, then reduce heat.

  5. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  6. Set aside.

Make the bechamel

  1. For Bechamel Sauce, in a medium saucepan melt the margarine.

  2. Stir in the chicken bullion cube, black pepper, and flour.

  3. Add the prepared milk all at once.

  4. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

  5. Cook and stir one minute more.

  6. Set aside 1/3 of the sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the rest of the sauce with the cooked macaroni.

  2. Spread half of the macaroni mixture into a 9" x 13" baking pan.

  3. Spread the meat mixture over it evenly.

  4. Spread the rest of the macaroni mixture over the meat.

  5. Pour the remaining sauce evenly over the top.

  6. Sprinkle with a little additional ground cinnamon.

  7. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned.

  8. Remove from oven. Let sit for five minutes. Then serve.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Parsley + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 holds the layers together when baked.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the bechamel sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the bechamel, which thickens as it cooks.
Ground meat
Provides the savory, browned filling layer.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity to the spiced meat filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the bechamel until thickened and bubbly. Flour must be cooked with the butter and milk until the sauce boils and thickens; otherwise it stays thin and tastes of raw flour.

Flavor stand-ins for the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, garlic, tomato, parsley, oregano, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  3. Basilbetter flavor fit
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, garlic, tomato, parsley, oregano, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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