Name: A Good Way to Cook Macaroni
Ingredients: ¼ bundle of macaroni; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 cup milk; ¼ cup butter (for topping); bread or cracker crumbs (for topping)

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 ↓

A Good Way to Cook Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the macaroni

Boil the macaroni in a saucepan of salted water for 10 to 15 minutes until swollen but not broken.
Drain the macaroni in a colander and rinse with cold water.

Make the white sauce

In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour to make a roux.
Gradually add the milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

Bake and serve

Place the macaroni in a baking dish and pour the white sauce over it.
Mix the bread or cracker crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle on top.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until 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.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Provides the starchy body that the sauce coats and holds together in the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the roux and carries the topping to browning.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter as a roux.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, which thickens as the starch swells.
Bread or cracker crumbs: Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk while stirring. Adding milk slowly while stirring keeps the starch in the roux dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

“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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A Good Way to Cook Macaroni