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'Got Some Crust' Macaroni and Cheese

"Delicious macaroni casserole, topped with crispy and cheesy crust."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The recipe

1 - 9x13 inch baking dish
Prep20 min
Cook55 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

  2. Cook the elbow macaroni in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 7 minutes. Drain well.

  3. Melt half the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

  4. Sprinkle the flour over the onion and stir for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 5 minutes.

  5. Remove from the heat. Stir in the salt, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce, mustard, 2 cups shredded Cheddar and 1/4 cup Parmesan until melted and smooth.

  6. Stir the drained macaroni into the cheese sauce, then spread the mixture evenly in the prepared dish.

  7. Melt the remaining butter and toss it with the bread crumbs, 1 cup shredded Cheddar and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan. Sprinkle over the macaroni.

  8. Bake uncovered until bubbling and the topping is golden, about 25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,243 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,427 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, flour, milk, sauce, pepper, mustard):

  1. Celerybetter flavor fit
  2. Capersbetter flavor fit
  3. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour, milk, sauce, pepper, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).