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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked pasta dish with macaroni, cheese, butter, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

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 ↓

Macaroni and 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

  1. Break macaroni and boil in salted water for 20 minutes, then drain.

Assemble

  1. In a buttered baking dish, place a layer of macaroni.

  2. Add a layer of cheese and repeat the layers.

  3. Top with more cheese and bits of butter.

  4. Pour enough milk over to cover the layers.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cheese + milktop 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 bulk and structure of the dish, absorbing milk and cheese as it bakes.
Cheese
Melts into the milk to create a creamy, rich sauce that binds the layers together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and helping the top brown in the oven.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the pasta and, with melted cheese, forms the creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Pour enough milk over to cover the layers. Pasta continues to absorb liquid as it bakes. Too little milk leaves the dish dry and firm, while the starch in the pasta needs enough liquid to soften and set into a creamy texture.

“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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