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 Cheese
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 macaroni in salted water for 15 minutes, then drain.
Pour ½ cup milk over the macaroni and boil for a few minutes.
Make the sauce
In a separate pan, make a sauce with the cheese, flour, butter, egg, and ½ cup milk, stirring until the cheese is dissolved.
Beat the mixture until creamy, then stir it into the boiling macaroni.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Forms the bulk and body of the dish, holding the sauce in its starchy structure.
- Cheese
- Provides the main flavour and, melted into the sauce, gives it a smooth, rich texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce so it clings to the macaroni instead of running off.
- Egg
- Enriches the sauce and helps it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the cheese sauce until smooth. Cheese proteins can clump or turn grainy if the sauce gets too hot or is not stirred. Keeping the heat gentle and stirring steadily lets the cheese melt evenly into the flour-thickened milk, giving a smooth sauce.
“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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