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Macaroni with Peanut Butter

A baked macaroni casserole with peanut butter, sweet milk, cheese, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni with Peanut Butter

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cook the macaroni until tender.

  2. In a saucepan, scald the sweet milk and stir in the peanut butter, cayenne pepper, butter, and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the macaroni and cheese alternately with the milk mixture.

  2. Top with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 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 bulk and structure of the casserole.
Peanut butter
Adds richness and a nutty flavour to the milk mixture.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that moistens the pasta and forms the sauce.
Mild cheese
Melts into the layers, adding richness and savoury flavour.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned topping over the casserole.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Lima beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, cheese, bread. 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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