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Macaroni and Ham

A simple pasta dish of macaroni simmered with diced corned ham, parsley, and pepper, served with grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni and Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch lengths and stew in boiling water for 10 minutes.

  2. Cut the ham into dice, wash well, and boil in 1 cup of cold water.

Cook

  1. Drain the macaroni and pour the ham and its cooking liquid over it.

  2. Season with pepper and simmer in a covered pot for 15 minutes.

  3. Add chopped parsley, cover, and let it stand for 1 more minute.

Serve

  1. Serve in a deep dish with grated cheese on the side.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  5. Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,249 recipes

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

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 cooking liquid as it simmers.
Corned ham
Adds savory flavor and salt to the cooking liquid, which is poured over the pasta.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, 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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