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Tomatoes with Macaroni

A baked casserole of tomatoes, macaroni, onions, Velouté sauce, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Tomatoes with Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then cut it into 1-inch lengths.

  2. Slice the tomatoes and layer them in a baking dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add a layer of macaroni on top of the tomatoes, repeating until the dish is two-thirds full.

  2. Sprinkle each layer with chopped onion, butter, pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour the Velouté sauce over the layers, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  4. Garnish with croutons of fried bread before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy body of the casserole, holding its shape between tomato and sauce layers.
Tomatoes
Supply moisture and acidity that soften the pasta and give the casserole its bright flavour.
Veloute sauce
Adds richness and moisture, binding the layers together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the layers and aiding browning on top.
Browned bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sauce, bread, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sauce, bread, butter. 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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