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Italian Macaroni

A macaroni dish with tomato soup, mushrooms, and cheese, served on crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Italian Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the cheese in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually stir in the tomato soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the chopped mushrooms and cooked macaroni.

  2. Season with red pepper, paprika, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Cook until heated through.

  4. Serve on crackers.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  3. Mushroom + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

American cheese
Melts into the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body and savory flavor.
Tomato soup
Provides the base liquid and tomato flavor that coats the macaroni.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and a tender bite to the sauce.
Cooked macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish, holding the sauce in its pasta shapes.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the tomato soup.. Adding the soup slowly to the melted cheese lets the mixture blend evenly into a smooth sauce instead of clumping or separating.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, cheese, 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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