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Rice, Macaroni, Oatmeal

Macaroni mixed with hard‑boiled eggs, seasoned with pepper and salt, and optionally finished with a white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice, Macaroni, Oatmeal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the egg and macaroni dish

  1. Take half a pound of macaroni and throw it into boiling salted water.

  2. While the macaroni cooks, prepare four hard-boiled eggs.

  3. When the macaroni is nearly tender, transfer the hard-boiled eggs to cold water for a minute to cool.

  4. Cut the eggs in half, remove the half-yellow yolk without breaking it, and cut the whites into rings.

  5. Mix the egg rings with the macaroni on the dish.

  6. Season the macaroni and eggs with pepper and salt.

  7. If desired, pour a little white sauce over the mixture; if no white sauce, add a little cream or thickened milk with a little butter dissolved in it.

  8. Sprinkle chopped blanched parsley over the dish and garnish with the eight half-yolks.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Boil half a pound of pipe macaroni.

  2. While the macaroni cooks, warm three-quarters of a pint of cream in a saucepan.

  3. Add half a pound of Stilton or other white cheese, two ounces of fresh butter, two blades of mace, a pinch of cayenne, and a little salt to the cream.

  4. Stir until the cheese melts and the mixture is smooth.

  5. Add the sauce to the macaroni and stir gently until combined and hot, or pour the sauce over the macaroni on a hot dish.

  6. Optionally, cover with fried bread-crumbs of pale colour and brown in a Dutch oven.

Bake and serve

  1. Break a pound of macaroni into three-inch lengths, boil as usual, and drain.

  2. In a stew-pan, combine a quarter pound of fresh butter, the macaroni, twelve ounces of Parmesan and Gruyère cheese, and about a quarter pint of white sauce.

  3. Cook over the fire until the macaroni absorbs the butter and sauce.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a dish, garnish with croutons of fried bread, and pile it into a dome shape.

  5. Cover with bread-raspings and a little clarified butter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

467Calories
24 gProtein
39 gFat
5 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 12 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macaroninot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0
Macenot 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 Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Forms the bulk of the dish and carries the sauce and cheese.
Eggs
Add firm, sliced whites and rich yolk garnish for texture and contrast.
Stilton
Melts into the cream to give a rich, sharp, savoury sauce.
Parmesan
Adds salty, savoury depth and helps the sauce cling to the pasta.
Cream
Makes a smooth, rich sauce that coats the macaroni.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce and macaroni.

The step that matters

Stir the cheese into the cream until smooth. Cheese proteins tighten and turn grainy or stringy when overheated, so the cream should be warm, not boiling, and the cheese melted gently to keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, sauce, cheese, egg, pepper, parsley):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sauce, cheese, egg, pepper, parsley. 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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