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Dessert

Macaroni, Sweet Pudding

A baked sweet macaroni pudding flavored with lemon rind, eggs, milk, sugar, nutmeg, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Macaroni, Sweet Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Combine the macaroni and 1 cup of milk with the lemon rind in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently until the macaroni is tender.

  3. Remove the lemon peel.

  4. Transfer the macaroni to a pie dish.

Make the custard and bake

  1. Mix the remaining cup of milk with the eggs, sugar, and brandy in a bowl. Stir the mixture well.

  2. Pour the egg mixture over the macaroni.

  3. Grate nutmeg on top.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy body of the pudding that soaks up the custard as it bakes.
Eggs
Set the custard as they heat, binding the milk and macaroni into a soft pudding.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that cooks the macaroni and forms the custard with the eggs.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes. Eggs set as they heat, so baking too hot or too long can make the custard curdle or turn rubbery. Watch for a set centre rather than a fully firm pudding.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg, brandy. 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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