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Macaroni and Cheese

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

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

Cook the macaroni

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

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a layer of macaroni in a buttered baking dish, then add another layer of macaroni and repeat.

  2. Generously place cheese on top and add bits of butter.

  3. Pour enough milk over to cover, then bake 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, holding the sauce between its layers.
Cheese
Melts into the milk to create a rich, savory, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Milk
Provides moisture that thickens into a sauce as it bakes with the cheese and pasta.

The step that matters

Pouring the milk. Use just enough milk to cover the macaroni. Too much liquid stays watery, since the milk thickens into a sauce only as starch and milk proteins set in the oven heat.

“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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