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French Macaroni

A dish of boiled macaroni mixed with eggs and cheese, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

French Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Make the macaroni mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the boiled macaroni and stir to combine.

  3. Beat the eggs and add them to the pan along with the grated cheese.

  4. Cook until the cheese melts, stirring occasionally.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on hot toast.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 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

Eggs
Bind the cheese and macaroni into a creamy mixture that sets as it cooks.
Cheese
Melts into the eggs and macaroni to give the dish its rich, creamy texture.
Macaroni
Forms the body of the dish, giving it substance and chew against the soft filling.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs gently while the cheese melts. Eggs thicken when heated but can scramble into lumps if the pan is too hot or they are left too long. Stirring steadily over moderate heat keeps the mixture smooth and creamy.

“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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