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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with a cheese sauce made from milk, flour, butter, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Macaroni and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the pasta

  1. Boil the macaroni in water until tender.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine flour and milk, and bring to a boil.

  2. Add butter and stir until melted, then mix in the grated cheese until dissolved.

  3. Combine the cheese sauce with the cooked macaroni and season to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a deep baking dish, sprinkle with additional cheese, and brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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 substantial, chewy body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as its starch swells when heated.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the sauce feel smooth and full-flavoured.
Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and, as it melts, the creamy sauce body and browned top.

The step that matters

Dissolving the cheese into the sauce. Cheese added to a boiling sauce can turn grainy or oily because its proteins tighten and fat separates at high heat. Removing the sauce from direct heat before stirring in the cheese keeps it smooth.

“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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