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Butternut Squash & Bacon Mac N’ Cheese

The comfort from traditional mac n’ cheese with a taste of fall spread throughout! Super cozy meal to curl up on the couch with!

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Butternut Squash & Bacon Mac N’ Cheese

Why it works: Butternut squash and pasta share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 46 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Butternut Squash & Bacon Mac N’ Cheese

Serves 4
Prep10 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
33 gProtein
53 gFat
60 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Cheddar Cheese1 oz (28g)113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Pumpkinnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Butternut squash + pastatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pasta + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut squash, olive, pepper, thyme, pasta, butter, garlic):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut squash, olive, pepper, thyme, pasta, butter, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.