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Fish and Macaroni

A baked casserole of macaroni mixed with fish, butter, egg yolks, lemon, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish and Macaroni

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.

Prepare the macaroni and fish

  1. Boil the macaroni in water until tender.

  2. Drain the macaroni and cut into short pieces.

  3. Remove the bones and skin from the boiled fish. Tear the fish into small pieces.

  4. Mix the fish pieces with the macaroni.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 2 ounces of butter. Add the egg yolks, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to the melted butter. Heat the mixture.

  2. Stir in ½ pint of melted butter.

  3. Add the fish and macaroni to the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. When hot, pour the mixture into a dish, heaping it in the center. Sprinkle with fine bread crumbs.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the top is light brown.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 and body of the casserole, holding the dish together with the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the sauce and helping the top brown.
Egg yolks
Thicken the buttery sauce and bind the fish and pasta into a cohesive, creamy mixture.
Fish (in the method)
Provides the main protein and savoury flavour of the casserole.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and egg sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the melted butter. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the butter is too hot or they are added too fast. Adding them off the heat or gently while stirring keeps the sauce smooth and thickened, so it binds the casserole rather than turning grainy.

“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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