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Macaroni Aux Anchois

A macaroni dish flavored with anchovies, capers, olives, butter, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Macaroni Aux Anchois

Ingredients

Directions

Make the anchovy butter

  1. In a small saucepan, combine garlic, shallot, anchovies, capers, and olives with butter.

  2. Fry gently until garlic and shallot begin to brown.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the mixture to the cooked macaroni in a larger saucepan.

  2. Stir in the grated cheese and mix well.

  3. 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. Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Dissolve into the butter to add deep savoury, salty flavour to the whole dish.
Butter
Carries the flavours of the aromatics and coats the macaroni, adding richness and moisture.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it gently browns in the butter.
Shallot
Contributes mild sweetness and aroma when softened and lightly browned in fat.
Grated cheese
Melts into the hot macaroni, adding fat, savouriness and a creamy, binding texture.
Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and carries the sauce through each bite.

The step that matters

Frying the garlic and shallot gently. Garlic and shallot scorch easily and turn bitter if browned too fast. Gentle heat lets them turn golden and sweet, building flavour in the butter without burning it.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, shallot, capers, olive, butter, cheese):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, shallot, capers, olive, butter, 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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