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To Dress Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with cream, mace, mustard, egg yolks, cheese, and puff pastry lining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,805 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Dress 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 filling

  1. Cook the macaroni in water with salt until tender, then drain.

  2. Return the macaroni to the pan and add cream; simmer until thick.

  3. Mix in beaten mace, mustard, and egg yolks; toss to combine.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry and pour in the macaroni mixture.

  2. Grate cheese over the top and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Mustard + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  2. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  3. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Mace + mustardtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,534 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 pie and gives it a firm, substantial body.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and thickens as it simmers around the pasta.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the cream and cheese.
Parmesan or cheshire cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and golden colour.

The step that matters

Simmer the cream until thick. The cream must reduce enough to coat the macaroni; if it stays thin, the filling will be watery and may not set properly once baked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, mustard, egg, cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, mustard, egg, cheese. 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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