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Baked Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with butter, bread crumbs, cheese, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni

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 ↓

Baked Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni in slightly salted water for about 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni and layer it in a greased pudding dish.

Layer and bake

  1. Add pepper, salt, and bits of butter between layers.

  2. Sprinkle each layer with grated bread crumbs and cheese, making the top layer thicker.

  3. Pour 1 cup of milk over the entire dish.

  4. Bake until the top is brown.

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.

  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. Bread + cheesetop 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a firm, sliceable body when baked.
Milk
Moistens the layers and softens the pasta as it bakes into a custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the top brown.
Grated cheese
Melts into the layers and adds savory flavor and a golden crust.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft pasta beneath.

The step that matters

Bake until the top is brown. Baking long enough lets the milk set and the bread crumbs and cheese brown, so the dish holds together rather than staying loose and pale.

“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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