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Turban of Macaroni and Ham

A baked dish of macaroni, ham, eggs, milk, and spices in a molded shape.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Turban of Macaroni and Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in salted water until tender, then drain and rinse in cold water.

  2. Cut the macaroni into small pieces.

Make the turban

  1. Mix macaroni with chopped ham, salt, paprika, beaten eggs, and milk or cream.

  2. Grease moulds with butter and fill with the mixture.

  3. Place moulds in a pan with hot water and bake until firm to the touch.

Serve

  1. Let cool for a few minutes, then turn out from the moulds.

  2. Serve surrounded with tomato or white sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

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

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it firm when baked.
Milk or thin cream
Adds moisture so the custard-like mixture stays tender as it sets.
Macaroni
Provides the body and structure of the turban once set.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour and meaty texture throughout.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Baking the moulds in a pan of hot water moderates the heat around the egg mixture, so it sets gently and evenly without curdling or becoming rubbery.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, milk, butter. 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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