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Cheese, with Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish layered with cheese, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cheese, with Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. In a saucepan, combine macaroni, a pinch of salt, and enough boiling milk and water to cover it.

  2. Boil until the macaroni is tender but firm.

Assemble and brown

  1. Layer the macaroni in a well-buttered dish, sprinkling with bread crumbs and a mix of Parmesan and Cheshire cheese.

  2. Add lumps of butter and repeat layers until the dish is full, finishing with bread crumbs on top.

  3. Pour warmed butter over the crumbs.

  4. Brown the dish before a clear fire or with a salamander, avoiding the oven.

  5. Serve with salt and mustard.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 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 body of the dish, holding the layers together.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the topping brown.
Cheshire cheese
Melts into the layers, adding richness and a sharp, savory flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the crumb topping brown.
Milk
Gives the macaroni a creamy, tender cooking liquid and mellow flavor.

The step that matters

Brown the dish before a clear fire or with a salamander, avoiding the oven.. Browning relies on direct, intense radiant heat to crisp the crumbs and set the cheese quickly. Too little heat leaves the top pale and the layers wet, while too much can scorch the crumbs before the cheese melts.

“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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