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Macaroni— Italian Style

A macaroni dish with a beef and vegetable sauce, topped with grated Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Macaroni— Italian Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into three-inch lengths and boil in salted water for 25 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni and set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, stew the beef gently with cold water until the juice is extracted.

  2. Add the chopped onion, tomatoes, and mushrooms to the beef juice, seasoning with salt and pepper, and stew until ready.

Assemble and serve

  1. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese in a serving dish.

  2. Layer the macaroni over the cheese.

  3. Pour the sauce over the macaroni.

  4. Repeat layers, finishing with sauce on top.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mushroom + parmesan cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Beef
Provides the savory meat flavor and the juices that form the sauce.
Macaroni
Forms the layers and soaks up the sauce as it sits.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that help make up the sauce.
Onion
Adds aroma and a mild sweetness as it stews.
Mushrooms
Contribute savory, earthy depth and extra moisture to the sauce.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory flavor to the bottom layer of the dish.

The step that matters

Stewing the beef gently. Cooking the beef slowly over gentle heat, starting with cold water, draws out its juices gradually. High heat tightens the muscle fibers and leaves the meat tough and the sauce thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, mushroom, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, mushroom, pepper, parmesan 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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