Skip to main content
Main

To Stew Macaroni

A macaroni stew made with beef broth, cream, butter, ham essence, Parmesan, cayenne, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Stew Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Boil the macaroni in beef broth until nearly done.

  2. Strain the macaroni and add cream, butter, essence of ham, Parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper, and salt. Mix over low heat for five minutes.

Finish and brown

  1. Transfer to a dish.

  2. Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese. Smooth with a knife.

  3. Brown with a salamander.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  5. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Riband macaroni
Forms the body of the dish, giving it a substantial, chewy bite.
Beef broth
Cooks the pasta while adding savoury, meaty flavour that carries into the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the stew.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the sauce turn glossy and smooth.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury depth and helps thicken the sauce and brown on top.

The step that matters

Brown with a salamander. The top can burn quickly under intense radiant heat. Watch closely so the cheese turns golden without scorching, which would make the dish taste bitter.

“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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes