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Macaroni and Tomato

A macaroni dish with butter, cheeses, cream, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Macaroni and Tomato

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and gruyere cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 152 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Macaroni and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in stock until tender.

  2. Drain and rinse the macaroni with cold water.

Make the dish

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the macaroni, Parmesan, Gruyere, pepper, salt, nutmeg, cream, and tomato sauce.

  3. Toss everything together for a few minutes until heated through.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parmesan cheese + gruyere cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 provides its starchy, chewy structure.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and salty flavor that browns and binds the sauce.
Gruyere cheese
Melts smoothly and adds nutty flavor and creaminess.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the cheese melt into a smooth coating.
Tomato sauce
Supplies acidity, moisture and a tomato flavor to the pasta.

The step that matters

Toss everything together until heated through. Heating gently and briefly keeps the cream and cheese emulsified and smooth; overheating can make the cheese turn grainy or oily and the sauce separate.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parmesan cheese, gruyere cheese, pepper, cream, tomato, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parmesan cheese, gruyere cheese, pepper, cream, tomato, sauce. 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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