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Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with butter, cheese, and browned breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, water, and enough salt to flavor it.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add the macaroni.

  3. Boil until the macaroni is tender, then drain and place in a deep dish.

Assemble

  1. Sprinkle grated cheese and small pieces of butter among the macaroni, reserving some cheese for the top.

  2. Season with pepper and cover with fine bread crumbs.

  3. Melt the remaining butter and pour it over the bread crumbs.

Brown and serve

  1. Place the dish near a fire to brown the crumbs, turning occasionally for even coloring.

  2. Serve very 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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pipe macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and carries the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that melts into the macaroni and crumbs.
Parmesan or cheshire cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts into the macaroni for a creamy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the cooked macaroni.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the dish.

The step that matters

Browning the crumbs by the fire. The crumbs need steady, even heat and occasional turning; uneven heat can scorch the top before the butter and crumbs brown, while too little heat leaves the topping pale and soft.

“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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