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Excellent Macaroni

A macaroni dish simmered in cream and butter, thickened with flour, and topped with roasted Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Excellent Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Soak the macaroni in warm water for 30 minutes, then drain.

  2. Boil the macaroni in fresh water for 15 minutes, then drain again.

  3. Boil the macaroni in 1 pint of milk until tender, stirring to prevent sticking.

Finish with cream and Parmesan

  1. In a stewpan, combine the drained macaroni with ½ cup of cream and 1 tablespoon of butter rolled in 2 tablespoons of flour.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes, then pour onto a plate and top with roasted Parmesan cheese.

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. Cream + buttertop 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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 of the dish and gives it its body once cooked until tender.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and coats the flour so it blends smoothly into the cream.
Flour
Thickens the cream as its starch swells on boiling, giving the sauce body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns when roasted, finishing the dish.

The step that matters

Boil the flour-thickened cream for 5 minutes. Flour must be fully mixed into the butter and cream and kept simmering so its starch swells and thickens the sauce. Stirring prevents lumps and a floury taste.

“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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