Why it works: Flour and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Macaroni, with Tomatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the macaroni and kidneys
Boil the macaroni in veal broth until tender.
Skin the mutton kidneys and fry them lightly in butter.
Remove the kidneys from the pan and mince them finely.
Make the gravy and stew
In the same pan, make a gravy by adding brown flour, rich stock, minced shallots, and cayenne.
Stew the minced kidneys in the gravy for 10 minutes.
Mix part of the warm macaroni into the gravy and toss for a few minutes.
Serve
Serve on a hot dish, topping with the remaining macaroni and pouring hot tomato sauce over.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Shallot + tomatotop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together583 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 absorbs the gravy as it is tossed.
- Mutton kidneys
- Provide the main meat, which becomes tender when stewed slowly in the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness for frying the kidneys and browning the pan.
- Brown flour
- Thickens the stock into a gravy that clings to the macaroni and kidneys.
- Rich stock
- Supplies liquid and savoury depth to the gravy.
- Shallots
- Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the gravy.
The step that matters
Stew the minced kidneys in the gravy for 10 minutes. Kidneys turn tough and rubbery if overcooked, so they should simmer gently in the gravy just until cooked through. Too high a heat or too long a stew toughens the meat and dries the gravy.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, flour, shallot, sauce):
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Welsh onionfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, shallot, sauce. 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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