Skip to main content
Main

The Macaroni Vender

A baked dish of macaroni layered with cooked egg yolks and topped with a cream sauce and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kellogg, E. E. (Ella Ervilla) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The Macaroni Vender

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break macaroni into pieces about an inch in length, enough to fill a large cup, and cook until tender in boiling milk and water.

  2. When done, drain and put a layer of the macaroni in the bottom of an earthen pudding dish, and sprinkle over it a scant teaspoonful of granola.

  3. Add a second and third layer and sprinkle each with granola.

Make the custard and bake

  1. Turn over the whole a custard sauce prepared by mixing together a pint of milk, the well-beaten yolks of two eggs or one whole egg, and one fourth of a teaspoonful of salt.

  2. Arrange the macaroni in layers loosely, so that the sauce will readily permeate the whole.

  3. Bake for a few minutes only, until the custard has well set, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

733Calories
28 gProtein
20 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Salt1 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 Kellogg, E. E. (Ella Ervilla). 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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Macaroni (in the method)
Forms the body of the dish, holding the layers together while the custard sets.
Eggs
Set the custard and add richness and structure to the layers.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving a soft, moist texture.
Flour
Thickens the milk sauce so it coats the macaroni instead of running off.

The step that matters

Bake for a few minutes only, until the custard has well set. Eggs set when heated, but overbaking makes the custard curdle and turn watery and grainy. Remove the dish as soon as the custard is firm.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes