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Macaroni and Cheese Timbale

A baked macaroni and cheese mixture shaped into a timbale, served with a white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Macaroni and Cheese Timbale

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Line a mold with cooked macaroni.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add salt and paprika, then stir in the beaten eggs.

Assemble and cook

  1. Mix the sauce with the macaroni and cheese.

  2. Fill the mold with the mixture.

  3. Poach in hot water (400°F/200°C) until firm.

Serve

  1. Serve surrounded by a white sauce.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the timbale holds its shape when poached and sliced.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that binds the macaroni.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor while the flour is cooked into a roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving body and moisture to the timbale.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the sauce and macaroni mixture.
Macaroni
Provides the body and structure of the timbale, lining the mold and filling it.

The step that matters

Poach until firm. Eggs set into a firm custard only within a narrow temperature range. Overheating or boiling the water can make the eggs curdle, grainy and watery, so the timbale should be poached gently until just set.

“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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