Name: Macaroni and Noodles
Ingredients: 1 pound macaroni; Coarse sea salt (to taste); Grated cheese (to taste); Butter (to taste); Milk (optional); 2 beaten eggs (optional)

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 and Noodles

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Add the macaroni and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until tender.
Drain the macaroni in a colander.

Assemble and serve

Layer the macaroni in a dish with grated cheese and butter.
Alternatively, serve with a milk and butter sauce, adding beaten eggs if desired.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its chewy, bulky texture.
Grated cheese: Melts into the pasta to add richness, saltiness and a creamy coating.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the cheese coat the pasta smoothly.
Milk: Forms a light sauce with butter that moistens the pasta.
Eggs: Thicken the sauce gently when heated, giving it a more custard-like body.

“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.