Name: Macaroni
Ingredients: 1 cup macaroni; 2 cups milk; ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt

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

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the macaroni in milk until tender.
Drain the macaroni and return it to the pot.
Add the butter, Parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Stir until well combined and 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,608 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the milk as it cooks, becoming tender.
Milk: Cooks the pasta and, as it reduces, provides a creamy, moist coating.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savory flavor and, melting into the warm pasta, helps make it creamy.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the coating.

“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.