Name: Stewed Macaroni a LA Turque
Ingredients: ½ pound macaroni; Salt (to taste); 1 cup stewed and strained tomatoes; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon paprika; ¼ cup pine nuts or blanched and chopped almonds; 3 tablespoons consomme or strong stock; Grated cheese (for serving)

Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Macaroni a LA Turque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

Break the macaroni into two-inch lengths.
Boil the macaroni in salted water for 20 minutes or until clear.
Drain the macaroni, rinse in cold water, and spread on a dish to cool, separating the tubes.

Make the sauce

In a separate pot, combine the tomatoes, butter, sugar, paprika, and salt.
Cook the tomato mixture for 5 minutes after boiling.
Stir in the pine nuts or almonds.

Combine and serve

Add the consomme or stock and the macaroni, bringing it to a gentle boil.
As soon as it begins to boil, remove from heat and serve with grated cheese.

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.

Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + pinetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together323 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,896 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + pinetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together358 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the body of the dish and holds the sauce when cooked to clear, tender tubes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries the flavour of the tomato sauce.
Stewed tomatoes: Provide the base of the sauce, adding moisture and acidity.
Pine nuts or almonds: Add crunch and a nutty flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Remove from heat as soon as it begins to boil. Once the macaroni and stock are combined, prolonged boiling can make the pasta soft and break it apart, so a brief gentle boil keeps its texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, pine, cheese):

Mustardfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Spinachfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, pine, cheese. 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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Stewed Macaroni a LA Turque