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Macaroni Pie

A baked pie of macaroni, onions, butter, cheese, seasoned beef steak, and fowl.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Swell the macaroni in milk with the onion.

Layer the pie

  1. Layer some macaroni at the bottom of a pie dish, adding bits of butter and a sprinkle of cheese.

  2. Cover with a well-seasoned beef steak, then add more macaroni.

  3. Place the seasoned fowl on top, followed by another beef steak.

  4. Finish with a layer of macaroni, pieces of butter, and grated cheese instead of crust.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pipe macaroni
Forms the bulk of each layer and soaks up milk and butter as it softens.
Milk
Softens the macaroni before baking and adds moisture to the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the top brown.
Gloucester cheese
Melts into the layers and adds savoury, salty flavour and browning on top.
Beef steak
Provides meaty flavour and substance in the layers as it cooks.
Fowl
Adds savoury poultry flavour and substance to the middle layer.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven. Gentle, moderate heat lets thick pieces of meat cook through evenly, while the macaroni and cheese soften without the top over-browning or the filling drying out.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, cheese, beef. 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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