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Macaeoni and Meat Pie

A baked pie of macaroni, cold meat, flour, and stock, steamed until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Macaeoni and Meat Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the macaroni and place it in a saucepan with plenty of boiling water.

  2. Add a little salt and boil until tender, about 15 minutes; then drain the water.

  3. Chop the meat as finely as possible.

  4. Blend the flour smoothly with a little of the stock or water.

Make the sauce

  1. Put the rest of the stock into a saucepan and stir in the flour; stir until it boils.

  2. Add the salt and pepper, then remove from heat and stir in the meat and macaroni.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased basin, cover with greased paper, and steam for 30 minutes.

  2. Turn it out and serve on a hot dish.

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. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 pie and gives it a soft, starchy body once boiled.
Cold meat
Supplies the savoury flavour and substance of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a sauce that binds the macaroni and meat together.
Stock
Provides the liquid that becomes the sauce and keeps the filling moist.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the stock until it boils. Flour must be blended smooth first and then brought to a boil so its starch swells and thickens the liquid evenly. Lumps or undercooked flour leave a pasty, raw taste and an uneven binding sauce.

“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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