Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tomato and Macaroni Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Break the macaroni into small pieces and cook in boiling salted water until tender.
Peel the tomatoes, slice them thinly, and season with salt and pepper.
Assemble
In a greased pie dish, layer the tomatoes, then sprinkle with grated cheese, chopped onion, and parsley.
Add the cooked macaroni and top with the remaining tomatoes.
Pour over the milk or Marmite gravy, or a mixture of both, and sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs.
Distribute small pieces of butter on top.
Bake and serve
Bake for about 30 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
To serve, turn out onto a hot dish and accompany with a well-seasoned cheese or onion sauce.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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 holds its shape when cut and served.
- Tomatoes
- Add moisture and a bright, acidic flavour that cuts the richness of the cheese and butter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and helps the breadcrumbs brown on top.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the layers, adding savoury flavour and binding the pie together.
- Milk
- Moistens the macaroni and sets into a creamy, custard-like binder as it bakes.
- Browned breadcrumbs
- Give a crisp, golden surface through browning in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake the pie until golden. Baking sets the milk or gravy and melts the butter so the layers hold together. Underbaking leaves the pie loose and wet, while the browned topping depends on dry heat in the oven.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cheese, milk, butter, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cheese, milk, butter, pepper. 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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