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 with Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Make the macaroni
Cook the macaroni in boiling water until tender.
Drain the water and add cold milk.
Bring to a boil again, then season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Finish and serve
Stir in the butter and dry grated cheese.
Transfer to a deep dish and sprinkle more cheese on top.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pipe macaroni
- Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its chewy, starchy body.
- Cold milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess as it warms and thickens with the starch.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
- Dry grated cheese
- Provides savory flavor and helps bind the sauce.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil again. Reheating the milk with the drained pasta lets the starch thicken the sauce. Boiling too long or too hard can scorch the milk or make the sauce grainy, so watch it closely.
“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.
More macaroni and cheese recipes
You might also like
Cheese Making50 recipes
Cheese Fritters34 recipes
Cheese Omelette31 recipes
Rice and Cheese Casserole23 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.