Name: Spaghetti with Tomato
Ingredients: one-half pound spaghetti; four slices bacon; one teaspoon salt; four tablespoons grated cheese; one cup rice; two tablespoons cheese; one small onion; one saltspoon paprika

Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Spaghetti with Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the spaghetti and tomatoes

Boil spaghetti with paprika.
At the same time boil tomatoes with salt and strain out seeds.

Make the filling

Put bacon and onion through food chopper and fry until brown.
Add tomato and spaghetti and heat through.

Bake and serve

Then pour all into a baking dish, cover with cracker crumbs and cheese, and bake until brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

406Calories

16 gProtein

13 gFat

56 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cheese + ricetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together942 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cheese + oniontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,849 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Spaghetti: Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it body.
Bacon: Adds fat and savory flavor as it fries and browns.
Tomatoes (in the method): Provide moisture and acidity that flavor the sauce.
Cheese: Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. The topping of cheese and cracker crumbs browns through dry heat, which forms the golden crust. Baking too briefly leaves it pale and the dish underheated. Watch the color rather than relying only on time.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, rice):

Tomatofits better
Mustardfits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, rice. 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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Spaghetti with Tomato