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Macaroni Pudding

A baked dish of macaroni mixed with milk, butter, sugar, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Soak the macaroni in water for 1 hour, then drain.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil in a pot.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer the macaroni in the milk until soft.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time.

  3. Mix in the cooked macaroni.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Macaroni
Provides the starchy body that gives the pudding its bulk and soft chew.
Milk
Supplies liquid that cooks the pasta and sets with the eggs into a custard-like texture.
Eggs
Coagulate during baking, binding the pudding and giving it structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps create a tender, lightly browned crust.

The step that matters

Simmer the macaroni in the milk until soft. Pasta must be fully softened before baking, because it will not finish cooking in the custard. Milk scorches easily on the bottom of a pot, so keep the heat low and stir.

“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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