Name: Potage De Macaroni D LA Medicis
Ingredients: 12 ounces Naples macaroni; ½ cup fresh butter; coarse sea salt; pepper; quenelles of fowl; 100 crayfish tails; flesh of a fine fowl, braised and chopped; 4 ounces fresh Parmesan cheese; consomme

Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potage De Macaroni D LA Medicis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the consommé as directed in the recipe.
Reduce the consommé by half.
Blanch the macaroni and strain it.

Cook the macaroni

Simmer the macaroni in half of the consommé with butter and pepper for 25 minutes.

Assemble and serve

In a tureen, layer macaroni, Parmesan, crayfish, and chopped fowl, repeating the layers.
Moisten with macaroni liquor and reduced consommé, serving the rest in a casserole.

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.

Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + crayfishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Crayfish + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together23 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Naples macaroni: Forms the bulk of the soup and absorbs the consommé and butter as it simmers.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the simmered macaroni.
Fresh parmesan cheese: Adds savory, salty depth and a sharp aroma to the layered macaroni.
Crayfish tails: Provide delicate sweet, shellfish flavor and tender texture in the layers.
Braised fowl flesh: Supplies savory meaty substance and body to the layered soup.

“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.