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Timbale Milanaise

A baked macaroni dish with gravy, cheese, butter, and optional game, served in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Timbale Milanaise

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.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in 6 cups of salted water with the onion, carrots, and bacon rinds. Do not soak the macaroni.

  2. Drain the macaroni and return it to the saucepan.

  3. Add the meat gravy, Gruyére cheese, Parmesan cheese, butter, and flour. Mix well.

  4. Incorporate any pieces of fowl or game, and season with pepper and salt.

  5. Let it stew gently for 45 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a pie crust by sprinkling the bottom with dots of butter and cheese.

  2. Fill the crust with the macaroni mixture, sprinkling more cheese on top as you fill.

  3. Pour any remaining gravy over the filling.

  4. Cover with the lid.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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. Cheese + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

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

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and structure of the timbale once cooked and set in the crust.
Meat gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth so the macaroni stays tender during stewing and baking.
Gruyére cheese
Melts into the filling, adding richness and a stringy, binding texture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds sharp, salty flavour and helps the top brown during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the filling and crust.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and cheese mixture so it holds together when cut.

The step that matters

Let it stew gently for 45 minutes. Gentle heat lets the macaroni absorb the gravy and cheese evenly without breaking apart or scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would spoil the texture.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, meat, cheese, parmesan cheese, butter, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, meat, cheese, parmesan cheese, butter, flour. 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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