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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with butter, cheese, and bread crumbs, browned on top.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

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 Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender, about 1.5 hours for pipe macaroni and less for smaller types.

  2. Grease a pie dish.

Assemble and cook

  1. Layer macaroni, cheese, and bread crumbs, adding bits of butter between layers.

  2. Ensure the top layer of crumbs is thicker and has more butter.

  3. Place in a Dutch oven over the fire until thoroughly browned.

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and starchy body of the dish, setting the structure of each layer.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumbs brown on top.
Grated cheese
Melts into the macaroni to add creaminess and savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft layers below.

The step that matters

Ensure the top layer of crumbs is thicker and has more butter.. Extra crumbs and butter on top give the surface enough fat and solids to brown well, while the layers beneath stay moist and creamy.

“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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