Name: Timbale of Macaroni
Ingredients: small macaroni (vermicelli, spaghetti, tagliatelle); butter; grated cheese; 1-2 eggs; coarse sea salt; bread crumbs; minced meat, poultry, or game

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Timbale of 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.

Break the macaroni into very short lengths and cook until slightly overdone.
Drain and dress with butter and grated cheese.
Work in 1-2 eggs based on the quantity of macaroni.
Butter a plain mold and coat it with bread crumbs.
When the macaroni is nearly cold, fill the mold, pressing it down and leaving a hollow in the center.
Place the minced meat, poultry, or game into the hollow.
Fill the mold with more macaroni, pressing it down again.
Bake in a moderately heated oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Turn out and serve.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).