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Tomato and Macaroni

A baked dish of macaroni layered with tomatoes, boiled onion, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Break up the macaroni and boil it in plenty of slightly salted water.

  2. Boil the onion in the same water.

  3. Strain the macaroni and layer it in a buttered pie dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add a layer of sliced tomatoes and the boiled onion.

  2. Repeat the layers, seasoning with pepper and salt until the dish is full.

  3. Finish with a layer of tomatoes on top, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and dot with small pieces of butter.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the tomatoes are cooked, about one hour.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and structure of the bake, holding its layers together as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that soften and flavour the layers as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown while keeping the dish moist.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the dish in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the tomatoes are cooked. Tomatoes need enough time at oven heat to soften and release their juices, which blend into the macaroni. Pulling the dish too early leaves the tomatoes firm and the topping pale.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, pepper, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, pepper, bread. 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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