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Souffle of Ham and Macaroni

A baked ham and macaroni soufflé with bread crumbs and a milk‑egg custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Souffle of Ham and Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cook ½ cup of macaroni, broken into 1‑inch lengths, in rapidly boiling salted water until tender.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and layer the macaroni with the grated ham, sprinkling each layer with bread crumbs and bits of butter.

  2. Beat the egg and mix it with the milk, then pour this mixture over the layered macaroni and ham.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the milk mixture and helps set the soufflé as it bakes.
Milk
Provides the liquid that moistens the macaroni and ham and forms the custard base.
Macaroni
Forms the starchy body of the dish, giving it structure and substance.
Ham
Adds savory flavor and richness throughout the layers.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes. Egg proteins set gently at a moderate, steady heat. A hotter oven can make the egg mixture curdle or dry out before the centre is set.

“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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