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Macaroni As a Vegetable

A baked macaroni dish with eggs, cream, ham, white meat, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Macaroni As a Vegetable

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Simmer macaroni in plenty of water until tender but not broken.

  2. Strain off the water.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, egg whites, cream, white meat, ham, grated cheese, salt, and pepper.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly.

  3. Mix the heated mixture with the macaroni.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer to a buttered mold and steam for 1 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. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

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

  2. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  3. Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

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

  4. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together564 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and bind the macaroni into a set, sliceable mass when heated.
Egg whites
Add structure and lightness as their proteins set during steaming.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard soft rather than dry.
Macaroni
Forms the body of the casserole, holding the custard in its shape.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and some fat that helps the mixture hold together.

The step that matters

Heating the egg mixture over low heat. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures and can scramble if heated too fast. Low heat with constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and prevents curdling before it is combined with the macaroni.

“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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