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Dessert

Macaroni Custard

A sweet baked macaroni dish with custard, marmalade, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Macaroni Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the macaroni

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

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk and beat in the eggs and sugar until well combined.

  2. Mix the cornflour with a little cold milk to form a smooth cream, then stir it into the milk mixture without boiling.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer some macaroni in a pie dish, pour a few spoonfuls of custard over it, and add a thin layer of marmalade.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is full.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until the custard is set.

Serve

  1. Let it cool, then turn out onto a dish and top with small heaps of marmalade.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 and body of the dish, holding the layers together.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk so the custard stays smooth and holds its shape.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and softness.
Marmalade
Adds sweetness and a bitter-citrus tang that cuts through the rich custard.

The step that matters

Stir the cornflour in without boiling. Cornflour thickens properly when heated gently; boiling the mixture after the eggs are added can curdle the eggs and leave the custard grainy or thin.

“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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