Name: Macaroni Boiled
Ingredients: 1 pint boiling water; 5 ounces macaroni; milk (enough to cover); 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teacup cream; salt to taste; pepper to taste; cheese (for grating on top)

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

Pour 1 pint of boiling water over 5 ounces of macaroni and let it stand for 30 minutes.
Drain the macaroni and place it in a pot with enough milk to cover.

Cook and finish

Cook until tender, then drain again.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 teacup of cream, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Grate cheese over the top and serve.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Forms the body of the dish, absorbing liquid as it softens.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished macaroni.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, giving a creamier texture.
Cheese: Adds savory flavor and a browned, melted topping when grated over the top.

“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.