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Tomato Macaroni

A baked dish of macaroni layered with tomatoes, butter, salt, pepper, and topped with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Break macaroni into pieces about 3 inches long and boil until tender.

Assemble

  1. Butter a deep dish and layer sliced tomatoes on the bottom.

  2. Add a layer of stewed macaroni and season with salt, pepper, and bits of butter.

  3. Continue layering with tomatoes and macaroni until the dish is full.

  4. Top with a layer of cracker crumbs and bits of butter.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes or until well browned.

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

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 dish, setting into tender layers as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that keep the layers juicy and flavourful as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the top crumbs brown in the oven.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns during baking.

The step that matters

Layering until the dish is full. Packing the layers evenly keeps the dish from baking unevenly, so the centre cooks through while the top browns.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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