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Spaghetti with Tomato

A baked spaghetti dish with tomato sauce, bacon, onion, paprika, cheese, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spaghetti with Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Boil the spaghetti with paprika according to package instructions.

  2. In a separate pot, boil the tomatoes with salt and strain out the seeds.

  3. Chop the bacon and onion, then fry until brown.

  4. Add the strained tomatoes and cooked spaghetti to the bacon and onion, and heat through.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish, cover with cracker crumbs and cheese, and bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

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.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  3. Onion + cheesetop 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 absorbs the sauce as it heats.
Tomatoes
Provide the main sauce, adding moisture and a bright acidity.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor as it browns, seasoning the sauce.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns with the bacon.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Fry the bacon and onion until brown. Browning builds deep, savory flavor through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Pale, underdone onion and bacon leave the sauce tasting flat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cheese. 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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