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Dessert

Macaroni Pudding

A sweet baked macaroni pudding made with milk, sugar, egg, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,685 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Macaroni Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into small pieces.

  2. Place the macaroni in a saucepan of boiling water.

  3. Boil uncovered for 20 minutes.

  4. Pour off the water.

  5. Add the milk.

  6. Simmer very slowly for about 15 minutes, or until the macaroni is tender.

  7. Remove the pan from the heat to cool slightly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Beat the egg and sugar together.

  2. Stir the mixture into the macaroni.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pie dish.

  4. Grate a little nutmeg over the top.

  5. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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 + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Provides the starchy body of the pudding once cooked until tender.
Egg
Sets with heat when baked, binding the pudding into a custard-like texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and softens the macaroni as it simmers.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Simmer the milk and macaroni very slowly. Gentle heat keeps the milk from scorching on the pan base and lets the macaroni soften evenly. Too much heat can burn the milk and leave the pasta unevenly cooked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk. 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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