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A Mould Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with gravy, cooked in a mold and served with remaining sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

A Mould Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Scald the macaroni in milk and water for about five minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni on a cloth and cut it into half‑inch pieces.

  3. Butter a small pudding mold thoroughly.

  4. Arrange the macaroni pieces in the mold, pipe end down, until the bottom and sides are covered.

Make the gravy and fill the mold

  1. Combine hot water, mace, white pepper, salt, butter, and isinglass in a saucepan and stir until melted.

  2. Add the cream and stir well.

  3. Mix in the meat until saturated with gravy.

  4. Spoon the mixture into the mold.

  5. Cover the mold tightly.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the mold in a pot of boiling water and boil for one hour.

  2. Let it stand for a few minutes before turning the macaroni out onto a dish.

  3. Boil the remaining gravy.

  4. Pour the gravy over the macaroni and around the dish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the structure of the molded shape and holds the filling together.
Isinglass
Sets the gravy into a firm, gel-like texture as it cools.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the gravy.
Cooked chicken or veal
Adds savoury protein and flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cover the mold tightly. A tight seal keeps boiling water from seeping into the mold. Water entering would dilute the gravy, so it would not set properly and the filling would turn out watery.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, mace, egg, cream, chicken):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, mace, egg, cream, chicken. 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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