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Savory Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with butter, milk, mustard flour, spices, Parmesan, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Savory Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Blanch the macaroni in boiling water with salt until cold, then drain.

  2. Melt the butter in an enamelled saucepan and stir in the macaroni until absorbed.

Make the custard

  1. Add the milk and simmer gently for about 1.5 hours until tender.

  2. Stir in mustard flour, white pepper, grated nutmeg, cayenne, Parmesan cheese, and beaten eggs mixed with thick cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a dish and top with grated Parmesan and small pieces of butter.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 to 15 minutes until pale brown.

  3. Serve very hot.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Naples macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing the milk and cream as it cooks.
Milk
Cooks with the pasta to make a soft, creamy base.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the sauce and giving the gratin structure.
Thick cream
Adds richness and moisture, producing a smoother, silkier sauce.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and salt, and browns on top when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Simmer the macaroni in milk until tender. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pan if heated too hard, and pasta that is not fully tender will stay firm after baking. Gentle heat and occasional stirring help the pasta soften evenly while the milk reduces into a creamy base.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, mustard, flour, nutmeg, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, mustard, flour, nutmeg, pepper, parmesan 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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