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Macaroni Soup

A creamy soup of milk, macaroni, cheese, butter, and toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil 1 quart of milk in a pot.

  2. Scald the macaroni in hot water before adding it to the milk.

  3. When the macaroni is tender, remove part of it from the pot.

  4. Add another quart of milk to the pot and bring it to a boil.

  5. Return the remaining macaroni to the pot along with the cheese.

  6. Let it simmer without boiling.

  7. Add the butter rolled in flour, salt, and pepper.

  8. Serve with toasted bread.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Cheese + buttertop 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 body of the soup and gives it starchy substance as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and moisture.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness and helps thicken the milk when melted gently.
Butter
Adds richness and, rolled in flour, helps thicken the soup smoothly.

The step that matters

Let it simmer without boiling. Milk and cheese can scorch or curdle and separate when boiled hard, so keeping the heat low keeps the soup smooth and creamy.

“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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