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Macaroni and Noodles

A simple dish of boiled macaroni mixed with cheese, butter, milk, and optionally eggs.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Macaroni and Noodles

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil salted water in a large pot.

  2. Add macaroni and cook for 20-30 minutes until tender.

  3. Drain the macaroni using a colander.

Assemble and sauce

  1. Layer the macaroni in a dish with grated cheese and butter.

  2. Alternatively, serve with a milk and butter sauce.

  3. For a richer sauce, beat 2 eggs into the milk and butter sauce.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its bulk and bite when cooked until tender.
Grated cheese
Melts into the dish, adding richness, savory flavor and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the cheese and milk sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, providing moisture and a creamy texture.
Eggs
Thicken the milk and butter sauce when beaten in, giving it a richer, more set texture.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs into the sauce. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding them to a hot sauce can scramble them. Beating them into the milk and butter sauce gently, off the heat or at low heat, helps keep it smooth and thickened.

“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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