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 and Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the macaroni
Cook the macaroni in salted water for 20 minutes over a slow fire.
Drain the macaroni and return it to the pan.
Finish the sauce
Add the milk or stock and simmer until absorbed.
Stir in the grated cheese until melted.
Add the butter and stir until melted.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 body of the dish, giving it bulk and a tender bite once cooked.
- Milk or stock
- Adds moisture that is absorbed and carries the flavour through the pasta.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the liquid to make the dish creamy and savoury.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the sauce and gives it a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Simmer the milk or stock until absorbed. Simmering until the liquid is absorbed lets starch from the pasta thicken the sauce. Stopping too early leaves it watery, while cooking too long can make it dry and clumpy.
“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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