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Croustade of Chicken and Macaroni

A pastry case filled with chicken, ham, macaroni, and béchamel sauce, topped with Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter 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 ↓

Croustade of Chicken and Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the pastry

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl, rub in the butter lightly, and mix in enough water to form a stiff dough.

  2. Roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick, line a flan ring with it, fill with raw rice, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the pastry is done.

  3. Remove the rice.

Prepare the filling

  1. Break the macaroni into small pieces, then cook in boiling salted water until tender.

  2. Cut the chicken and ham into bite‑sized pieces, combine them with the cooked macaroni in a saucepan, and add some béchamel sauce, being careful not to add too much.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the pastry case with the chicken mixture, sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top, and place in the oven to heat through.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Chicken + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,846 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Rubbed into the flour to make the pastry short and tender.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pastry case with water and butter.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk and chewy texture of the filling.
Béchamel sauce
Binds the chicken and macaroni together with a creamy moisture.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour.
Cold chicken
Supplies the main protein and substance of the filling.

The step that matters

Adding the béchamel sauce. Too much béchamel makes the filling loose and soggy, so it can soak into the pastry and stop it staying crisp. Add it gradually until the mixture is just moist enough to hold together.

“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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