Name: Timbal of Macaroni a LA Milanaise
Ingredients: macaroni; cheese; béchamel sauce; cooked fowl; truffles; tongues; mushrooms

Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Timbal of Macaroni a LA 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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare the macaroni and dress it with cheese.
In a mold, layer the macaroni, then add scallops of fowl, truffles, tongues, and mushrooms.
Bake in the oven until heated through.
Turn the timbal out onto a serving dish.
Glaze the timbal and pour béchamel sauce around the base 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.

Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Cheese + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cheese + truffletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together72 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + mushroomtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).