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Macaroni Timbale

A baked or steamed dish of macaroni layered with meat, bread crumbs, stock, and tomato catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix the bread crumbs and meat or vegetables well together.

  2. Add the stock or gravy, seasoning, and tomato catsup.

Fill the mold

  1. Grease a plain pudding mold and line it with the boiled macaroni.

  2. Fill the mold with the mixture and press it in compactly.

  3. Put the lid on the mold and fasten it.

Steam and serve

  1. Stand the mold in a kettle with boiling water to cover it about two-thirds.

  2. Cover the kettle and boil for one hour.

  3. When done, turn it out from the mold and pour cream sauce around it 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. 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, giving the timbale a firm, shaped edge once cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the stock and gravy, helping bind the filling and keep it moist.
Left-over meat
Provides the main savory filling that the timbale is built around.
Stock or gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the filling so it does not dry out while steaming.

The step that matters

Pressing the filling compactly into the mold. Loose filling can leave gaps and crumble when turned out. Firm packing helps the bread crumbs and meat hold together as the timbale steams and sets.

“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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