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Macaroni, Savoury

A baked macaroni dish with a custard made from milk and eggs, seasoned with onion, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni, Savoury

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch pieces and boil in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Drain and return to the pot with stock, onion, pepper, and salt.

  3. Simmer gently until the macaroni is tender but unbroken.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together milk and eggs to make a custard.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the macaroni in a greased dish and pour the custard over it.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until the custard is set and lightly browned.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Onion + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps it soft and moist.
Pipe macaroni
Provides the bulk and body of the dish, holding its shape within the custard.
Stock
Adds savoury depth to the macaroni as it simmers.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury flavour as it softens in the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the macaroni is tender but unbroken. Vigorous boiling can break the pasta apart and make the dish mushy. Gentle heat cooks the starch evenly while the pieces hold their shape.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk, egg. 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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