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Telegram Conservation Cook Book

A baked vermicelli dish with tomatoes, cheese, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Telegram Conservation Cook Book

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spaghetti

  1. Break the spaghetti into small pieces and add 1 teaspoon of salt and a quart of boiling water. Boil for 30 minutes, then drain.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Fry 1 onion in butter until browned.

  2. Add canned tomatoes, canned mushrooms, 1 teaspoon of Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and a dash of red pepper. Cook until the tomatoes soften.

  3. Combine the drained spaghetti with the tomato mixture. Stir in grated cheese, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish, sprinkle grated cheese on top, and bake until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1189Calories
42 gProtein
37 gFat
172 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 13 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0

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

By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [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.

  1. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vermicelli
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its chewy, starchy body.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that balance the richness of the cheese and butter.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a savory, golden crust.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and helps the onion brown during frying.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma when fried until browned in butter.

The step that matters

Bake until the cheese is browned and bubbly. Cheese browns through the Maillard reaction and fat-driven browning at higher oven heat. Pulling the dish too early leaves the topping pale and the centre under-heated, while overbaking can make the cheese oily and tough.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, butter, flour, milk, cheese, rice, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, butter, flour, milk, cheese, rice, pepper. 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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