Skip to main content
Main

Macaroni Rarebit

A cheese sauce made with American cheese, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and egg yolk, served over boiled spaghetti.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Macaroni Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spaghetti

  1. Boil the spaghetti, then cool it in cold water for at least 2 hours.

  2. Drain and cut the spaghetti into 1-inch lengths.

Make the rarebit

  1. In a chafing dish, combine the cheese, Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup, salt, and pepper.

  2. Beat the egg yolk with water and add it to the cheese mixture.

  3. Light the lamp and stir continuously until the cheese melts and becomes soft.

  4. Add the spaghetti and stir until heated through, then serve immediately.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 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

Spaghetti
Provides the bulk and chewy body that the cheese sauce coats.
Soft american cheese
Melts into the smooth, creamy sauce that forms the base of the dish.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps thicken and emulsify the cheese sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that flavours the cheese.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich cheese.

The step that matters

Stir the cheese mixture continuously while it melts. Cheese proteins can seize and turn grainy or oily if they overheat or heat unevenly, so constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth. The egg yolk also thickens the sauce and can scramble if it gets too hot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, sauce, ketchup, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, sauce, ketchup, pepper, egg. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes