Name: Timbale De Macaroni
Ingredients: ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese; 1½ cups grated Gruyere cheese; as much butter as cheese, mixed with flour; pieces of fowl, pheasant, partridge, goose liver, or cocks’ combs; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; macaroni (if no fowl or game is available); good meat gravy

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 ↓

Timbale De Macaroni

Ingredients

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1½ cups grated Gruyere cheese
as much butter as cheese, mixed with flour
pieces of fowl, pheasant, partridge, goose liver, or cocks’ combs
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
macaroni (if no fowl or game is available)
good meat gravy

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the macaroni

Cook the macaroni until done, then drain it.
Return the macaroni to the saucepan with meat gravy and the cheeses.
Add butter mixed with flour, and any nice pieces of fowl or game.
Season with pepper and salt, and let it stew gently for 45 minutes.

Assemble and bake

Prepare a pie crust by sprinkling the bottom with dots of butter and cheese.
Fill the crust with the mixture, sprinkling more cheese on top.
Pour any remaining gravy over the filling.
Cover with the lid and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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.

Parmesan cheese + gruyere cheesetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together152 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Gruyere cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,041 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 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 timbale and holds its shape once baked in the crust.
Gruyere cheese: Melts into the gravy to add richness and a creamy, binding texture.
Parmesan cheese: Adds a sharp, salty flavour and helps the filling brown on top.
Butter mixed with flour: Thickens the gravy and adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.
Meat gravy: Provides moisture and savoury flavour that soaks into the macaroni as it stews.

The step that matters

Stewing the macaroni in gravy for 45 minutes. Gentle stewing lets the pasta absorb the gravy and cheese evenly. Boiling hard can break up the cheese mixture and make the filling greasy or stringy.

“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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Timbale De Macaroni