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Dessert

Macaroni Pudding

A baked macaroni pudding made with milk, eggs, sugar, butter, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Wash and break the macaroni into small pieces.

  2. Put it into a saucepan with hot water and salt to cover, and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Pour off the water, add the milk, and cook slowly until the macaroni is tender.

Make the custard

  1. Add the butter and sugar, then transfer to a basin to cool.

  2. Beat the eggs to a stiff froth.

  3. Mix everything thoroughly and pour into a greased pie dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Grate a little nutmeg over the top and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes until pale brown.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Forms the body of the pudding, softening as it cooks in the milk.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the macaroni and sets with the eggs into a custard.
Eggs
Beaten to a froth, they add structure and help the pudding set when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture.

The step that matters

Baking until pale brown. Baking too long dries out the custard and makes it tough, while stopping too early leaves it loose, since the eggs need heat to set the milk.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, butter. 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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