Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Macaroni with Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the macaroni
Break the macaroni into inch-lengths and cook in boiling salted water for 20 minutes.
Make the tomato sauce
In the meantime, strain and boil the broth, then add sliced tomatoes and stew until tender.
Strain the tomato mixture into a saucepan, season well, and stir in the butter rolled in flour.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Assemble and serve
Place the cooked macaroni in a deep dish, sprinkling grated cheese over each layer.
Pour the hot sauce over the macaroni, using a fork to mix it into the lower layers.
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.
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,896 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Macaroni
- Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its body when cooked in boiling water.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base in which the tomatoes are stewed, adding savory flavor to the sauce.
- Tomatoes
- Break down while stewing to form the body and tangy flavor of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the sauce, carrying flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when rolled with butter and stirred into the hot tomato mixture.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the hot macaroni and sauce, adding savory flavor and richness between layers.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter and flour into the tomato mixture. Flour clumps if added raw to hot liquid. Rolling it in butter first coats the particles so they disperse, and the sauce thickens smoothly as it simmers.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cheese):
- Chivefits better
- Potatofits better
- Mustardfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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