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Noodle Dessert with Cheese

A baked casserole of noodles, cheese, and a creamy sauce topped with cracker crumbs and butter flakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Noodle Dessert with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the noodles

  1. If making noodles, mix 2 eggs to form the dough.

  2. If using macaroni, cut ¼ pound, boil in salted water for 15 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and gradually add the milk while stirring constantly until thickened.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a pudding dish and layer noodles, cheese, and sauce, repeating until all ingredients are used.

  2. Top with cheese, cracker crumbs, and butter flakes.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until brown.

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

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

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure to the homemade noodles.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the layers together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, setting into a creamy custard as it bakes.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts into the layers for richness.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Stirring constantly while the milk heats keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps or scorching on the pan bottom.

“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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