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Anchovy Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with anchovies, eggs, butter, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Anchovy Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, using fish stock if available.

  2. Soak the anchovies in milk for 1 hour, then wash, bone, and sieve them.

  3. Heat the butter and mix in the sieved anchovies and seasoning.

  4. Boil the eggs hard, then either pound the yolks with the anchovies or dice them.

Assemble and bake

  1. Combine all ingredients and place in small hot china cases, one for each person.

  2. Sprinkle with fried bread crumbs and bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 minute.

  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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the main savoury, salty flavour that defines the dish.
Butter
Carries the anchovy flavour and adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
Eggs
Add richness and body, and set to bind the mixture together.
Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish, giving it its main texture.

The step that matters

Soak the anchovies in milk for 1 hour. Soaking draws out excess salt and mellows the strong fishy flavour, so the anchovies season the dish without overpowering it.

“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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