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Stewed Macaroni

A stewed macaroni dish with cheese, butter, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter 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

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain and add the cheese and butter, mixing well.

  2. Transfer to a serving dish.

  3. Pour the tomato sauce over the macaroni before serving.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the starchy body and structure that holds the cheese and sauce.
Cheese
Melts into the hot pasta to add creamy richness and savory flavor.
Butter
Adds fat that coats the pasta for a smoother mouthfeel and richer taste.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity that brighten the dish and balance the richness.

The step that matters

Drain and add the cheese and butter, mixing well.. The cheese melts best into hot, well-drained pasta. Excess water dilutes the sauce and can make the cheese clump or turn greasy, so drain thoroughly and mix while the pasta is still hot.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, sauce. 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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