Name: Macaroni with Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: 8 ounces macaroni; ½ pint milk; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 large onion or 2 small onions, shredded; tomatoes or tomato sauce; grated cheese (optional)

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 ↓

Macaroni with Tomato Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

Break the macaroni into small pieces and boil in water until tender.

Make the sauce

In a separate pan, melt the butter and sauté the onions until soft.
Add the tomatoes or tomato sauce to the onions and cook until the onion is dissolved.

Combine and serve

Drain the macaroni and add it to the sauce, warming everything together until mixed.
If desired, stir in some grated cheese before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

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 dish and gives it its chewy, starchy body.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps soften the onions without browning them.
Onions: Provide savory sweetness and body as they soften and dissolve into the sauce.
Tomatoes or tomato sauce: Supply acidity and liquid that form the main sauce around the pasta.