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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with white sauce, cheese, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,861 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni 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.

Prepare the macaroni and sauce

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water for 30 minutes or until soft.

  2. Strain the water and cut the macaroni into 1½ inch pieces.

  3. Prepare the white sauce as directed elsewhere.

Assemble

  1. Mix half of the cheese with the sauce, adding pepper and salt.

  2. In a serving dish, layer macaroni, sauce, and a little dry cheese.

  3. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, reserving dry cheese for the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 to 10 minutes until golden.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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 and bulk that holds the dish together.
White sauce
Supplies moisture and creaminess that coats the macaroni pieces.
Dry cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the top brown and turn golden in the oven.

The step that matters

Boil the macaroni until soft. Pasta cooked only until soft, and then cut and baked, can turn mushy; the starch continues to absorb liquid in the sauce and oven, so tenderness must be judged carefully.

“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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