Name: Macaroni and Meat
Ingredients: cold boiled macaroni; lean cold roast beef or mutton; coarse sea salt; black pepper; thyme; liquor from canned tomatoes (optional); stock or gravy; bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons melted butter

Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Macaroni and Meat

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Chop the cold roast beef or mutton very fine.
Nearly fill a pudding dish with the cold boiled macaroni.

Assemble

In the center, place the chopped meat and flavor it with salt, pepper, thyme, and liquor from canned tomatoes if desired.
Pour stock or gravy over the mixture.
Cover with bread crumbs and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for half an hour.

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.

Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled macaroni: Forms the bulk of the dish and soaks up the stock for a moist, tender base.
Lean cold roast beef or mutton: Provides the savory meat flavor at the center of the bake.
Stock or gravy: Adds moisture and savory flavor so the macaroni and meat do not dry out in the oven.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden browned topping when baked.
2 tablespoons melted butter: Adds fat that helps the bread crumbs brown and gives richness.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, thyme, bread, butter):

Tomatothe original
Potatofits about as well
Leekfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, thyme, bread, 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.