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Baked Macaroni, with Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with butter, salt, grated cheese, and milk.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Baked Macaroni, with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break macaroni into 2.5 to 3-inch pieces.

  2. Boil in salted water for 12-15 minutes until soft, shaking the pan to prevent sticking.

  3. Drain in a colander and place in a pudding dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add butter, salt, and grated cheese, layering if desired.

  2. Cover with milk and bake until absorbed and top is browned.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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 starchy body of the dish that holds the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and a smooth mouthfeel.
Grated cheese
Provides flavour and, as it melts, a creamy binding through the pasta.
Milk
Supplies liquid that the pasta absorbs while baking, creating a creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Baking until the milk is absorbed. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid as it bakes. Removing the dish too early leaves it soupy, while baking too long dries it out. The top browns through the Maillard reaction, which adds savoury flavour.

“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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