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Tomatoes, with Macaroni

A macaroni dish stewed with tomatoes, onion, butter, and seasonings, topped with cracker crumbs and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomatoes, with Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Break macaroni into 1-inch lengths.

  2. Stew macaroni in salted water with sliced onion until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Add tomatoes, pepper, celery salt, and butter.

  2. Thicken with cornstarch.

  3. Serve as a vegetable or transfer to a pudding dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Top with cracker crumbs and grated cheese.

  2. Brown in the oven at 400 °F (200 °C).

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 of the dish and gives it its body once cooked until tender.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that form the base of the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the tomato liquid into a sauce that clings to the macaroni.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top in the oven, adding flavor and a golden crust.
Cracker crumbs
Add a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft macaroni.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be heated in the liquid to swell and gelatinize; if it is added to cold or insufficiently heated tomatoes it stays grainy and fails to thicken, leaving a thin sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, celery, butter, 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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