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Macaroni Nudels

A baked dish of macaroni mixed with butter, milk, and cheese, served in scallop shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Macaroni Nudels

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.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Wash the macaroni and boil it in water.

  2. Drain the macaroni and cool it in cold water.

  3. Cut the macaroni into pieces no longer than ½ inch.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the milk or cream.

  2. Stir in enough flour to thicken the mixture.

  3. Add pepper, salt, nutmeg, and Parmesan cheese.

  4. Mix in the cut macaroni and stir well over heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill scallop shells with the mixture and top with grated cheese.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the cheese is browned.

  3. Drizzle oiled butter over the top before serving.

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.

  1. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 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 bulk of the dish and gives a chewy, substantial texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce and browning the top.
Milk or cream
Provides the liquid base that becomes the creamy sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the sauce clings to the macaroni instead of running.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and melts into the sauce for body.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour before adding the rest. Flour must be cooked into the hot butter and milk to thicken evenly; added to cold or lumpy liquid it forms clumps, and the sauce will not reach a smooth, cling-ready consistency.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese, cheese):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Basilfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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