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Macaroni, with Cream

A macaroni dish cooked with butter, cream, and parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni, with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in water until tender.

  2. Drain and cut into 2-inch lengths.

Finish and serve

  1. In a stewpan, combine macaroni, butter, cream, parmesan, white pepper, and salt.

  2. Stir over heat until hot.

  3. Shake the pan to make it frothy.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Cream + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes
  5. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 carries the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Provides moisture and a creamy texture that coats the pasta.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the sauce cling to the pasta.

The step that matters

Stir over heat until hot. Heating gently keeps the cream and cheese from separating or turning grainy. Too much heat can cause the dairy to break, so the sauce stays smooth only when warmed slowly and stirred.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, parmesan 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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