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Macaroni Pudding

A baked macaroni dish with eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and nutmeg or cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Macaroni Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the macaroni.

  2. Cook for 15 minutes, then drain using a colander.

  3. Break the macaroni into smaller pieces and place in a buttered pie dish.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the beaten eggs and enough milk to cover the macaroni.

  2. Stir in the sugar and mix well.

Bake

  1. Dot the top with small pieces of butter and sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until browned.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 body of the pudding, giving it bulk and a soft, starchy texture.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the milk and macaroni into a custard-like pudding.
Milk
Provides liquid that cooks with the eggs to form a creamy custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven until browned. Eggs set gently at moderate heat; too hot an oven can curdle or overcook them, leaving a grainy, watery pudding. Watch for a set centre and an even golden top.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, 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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