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Leghorn Macaroni

A macaroni dish layered with bechamel sauce, butter, Parmesan, and tomato puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Leghorn Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in 2 quarts of water with a little salt until soft, about 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni.

  3. Avoid breaking the macaroni into short pieces.

Make the creamy macaroni

  1. Moisten the macaroni with Bechamel sauce in a stew-pan.

  2. Season the macaroni with white pepper and nutmeg.

  3. Remove the macaroni from heat.

  4. Add butter in small pieces.

  5. Add grated Parmesan cheese.

  6. Stir until creamy.

Layer and serve

  1. Layer the macaroni in a deep dish, covering each layer with tomato puree or heated tomato sauce.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 bulk of the dish and holds the sauces between its layers.
Bechamel sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy texture that coats the pasta.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished macaroni.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and helps the macaroni turn creamy when stirred.
Tomato puree
Provides acidity and fresh tomato flavor that contrasts with the rich layers.

The step that matters

Stir until creamy. Adding butter and Parmesan off the heat and stirring lets the fat and cheese emulsify into the starchy sauce. Over-high heat can make the cheese grainy or cause the butter to separate.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, nutmeg, butter, parmesan cheese, tomato. 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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