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Timbale De Macaroni

A molded dish of macaroni, stewed ox palates, mushrooms, and thick white sauce.

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 ↓

Timbale De Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Soften the macaroni by stewing it in a little milk and water or broth until it cuts easily without breaking, but do not let it get too soft.

  2. Cut the softened macaroni into pieces half an inch long, ensuring they are all the same size.

Shape and fill the timbale

  1. Butter a mold and stick the macaroni closely together all over it to resemble a honeycomb.

  2. Fill the mold with the minced stewed ox palates and moistened button mushrooms.

Serve

  1. Carefully turn the timbale out of the mold.

  2. Serve with thick white sauce and mushrooms.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Milk + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce 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

Straight pipe macaroni
Forms the edible honeycomb shell that holds the filling and keeps its shape.
Milk
Softens the macaroni while stewing and adds a mild richness to the shell.
Butter
Greases the mold so the macaroni shell releases cleanly when turned out.
Stewed ox palates
Provides the main savoury, tender filling inside the shell.
Small button mushrooms
Adds earthy flavour and moisture to the filling and the sauce topping.
Thick white sauce
Adds creamy moisture and smoothness to the timbale when served.

The step that matters

Stewing the macaroni. If the macaroni is cooked too long it turns soft and cannot hold its shape or cut cleanly. Stopping when it is still firm lets the pieces keep their structure to form and support the timbale.

“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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