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Savory Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with sweetbread custard, eggs, milk, and seasonings, topped with grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Savory Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Combine the leftover soup and boiling water in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim the surface.

  3. Add the macaroni and cook until tender but not broken.

Prepare the sweetbread and custard

  1. Boil the sweetbread for 15 minutes.

  2. Cool the sweetbread in cold water, then cut it into small dice.

  3. Whisk together the eggs, milk, and salt to make a custard.

  4. Mix the custard into the cooked macaroni.

Bake and serve

  1. Add minced onion, pepper, and chopped sweetbread to the mixture.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased mold and cover the mold.

  3. Place the mold in a dripping pan filled with boiling water.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for just over 1 hour.

  5. Turn out onto a hot dish 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.

  1. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the macaroni and sweetbread hold together when baked and turned out.
Milk
Makes the custard liquid that bakes into a soft, moist, sliceable texture.
Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish, giving body and a starchy structure once baked.
Sweetbread
Provides the main meaty texture and rich flavor, cut into small dice through the bake.
Leftover soup
Adds savory flavor to the water used to cook the macaroni.

The step that matters

Baking in a water bath. Placing the covered mold in a dripping pan of boiling water surrounds it with gentle, even heat. This keeps the egg custard from curdling or drying out before the dish sets.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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