Name: Curried Maccaroni
Ingredients: 6 ounces ribband maccaroni; 1¼ pints beef or veal stock or gravy; 1 small tablespoon fine curry powder; 1 teaspoon arrowroot; juice of ½ lemon; a small bit of butter; optional: rich cream or béchamel; optional: 1-2 ounces grated cocoa-nut

Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Curried Maccaroni

Ingredients

6 ounces ribband maccaroni
1¼ pints beef or veal stock or gravy
1 small tablespoon fine curry powder
1 teaspoon arrowroot
juice of ½ lemon
a small bit of butter
optional: rich cream or béchamel
optional: 1-2 ounces grated cocoa-nut

Directions

Cook the macaroni

Boil the macaroni in slightly salted water with a small bit of butter for 15 minutes.
Drain the macaroni and set aside.

Make the sauce

In a pot, mix the stock or gravy with curry powder and arrowroot, and boil for 20 minutes.
Add the macaroni to the sauce and toss gently until well coated.
Stir in cream or béchamel just before adding the macaroni, and add lemon juice afterwards.
Simmer grated cocoa‑nut in the gravy for 30 minutes, then strain.

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.

Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together553 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cocoatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together548 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).
Beef + cocoatop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together33 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or veal stock: Forms the savoury liquid base that carries the curry flavour through the sauce.
Curry powder: Provides the main spiced aroma and flavour of the dish.
Arrowroot: Thickens the liquid into a glossy sauce that clings to the macaroni.
Macaroni (in the method): Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing and holding the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its flavour.
Cream or béchamel: Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in cream or béchamel, then lemon juice. Dairy can split or turn grainy when it boils or is overheated, and acid such as lemon juice can curdle it. Adding the cream just before the macaroni and the lemon afterwards, off a hard boil, helps keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the cocoa

The recipe marks cocoa as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, arrowroot, lemon, butter, cream):

Pistachiofits better
Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, arrowroot, lemon, butter, cream. 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.