Name: Macaroni and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 cup macaroni, broken into pieces; 1 quart tomatoes; 1 small onion; 1 egg-sized lump of butter; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Sugar (optional)

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

Soak the macaroni in cold water for 1 hour.
Wash and boil the macaroni for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce

Puree the tomatoes and onion together.
In a saucepan, combine the tomato puree with the butter, salt, pepper, and sugar if desired.

Combine and serve

Drain the macaroni and add it to the tomato mixture.
Serve hot.

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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 dish, giving it substance and bite.
Tomatoes: Provide the main liquid and acidity, forming the sauce that coats the pasta.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, rounding out the acidity of the tomatoes.
Onion: Adds savory aroma and background sweetness to the pureed sauce.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, egg, butter, pepper, sugar. 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.