Name: Macaroni Timbale
Ingredients: 6 ounces left-over meat or 1 teaspoon tomato catsup; 2 ounces macaroni, boiled; 4 tablespoons bread crumbs, cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 tablespoon stock or gravy; Coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') to taste

Why it works: Meat and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Macaroni Timbale

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

6 ounces left-over meat or 1 teaspoon tomato catsup
2 ounces macaroni, boiled
4 tablespoons bread crumbs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon stock or gravy
Coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') to taste

Directions

Prepare

Mix the bread crumbs and meat or vegetables well together.
Add the stock or gravy, seasoning, and tomato catsup.

Mould and steam

Grease a plain pudding mold and line it with the boiled macaroni.
Fill the mold with the mixture and press it in compactly.
Put the lid on the mold and fasten it.
Stand the mold in a kettle with boiling water to cover it about two-thirds.
Cover the kettle and boil for one hour.

Serve

When done, turn it out from the mold, pour cream sauce around it, and serve.

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.

Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 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: Lines the mold, forming a firm outer shell that holds the timbale's shape.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the stock and juices, binding the filling so it holds together when turned out.
Left-over meat: Provides the main savoury filling and flavour of the timbale.
Stock or gravy: Adds moisture and savour, keeping the filling from drying out while it steams.

The step that matters

Pressing the filling compactly. Firm packing removes air pockets so the timbale holds its shape when turned out. Loose filling can crumble or collapse once the mold is opened.

“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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Macaroni Timbale