Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Macaroni, Style of Gobert
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Boil the macaroni in enough water to cover it until the water evaporates.
Grate the cheese and mix it with the macaroni and butter over low heat until the cheese melts.
Assemble the pie
Grease the sides and bottom of a stewpan and line it with a thick layer of pâte brisée.
Add the macaroni mixture to the lined stewpan and cover with another layer of pâte brisée.
Cook and serve
Cook over very low heat, covering the stewpan and placing a fire on top for 45 minutes.
Invert onto a serving plate to serve.
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.
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Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Macaroni
- Forms the bulk of the filling, giving the pie its body and structure once cooked.
- Gruyere or parmesan cheese
- Melts into the macaroni to add rich flavour and a binding, creamy texture.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat that coats the pasta and carries richness into the filling.
The step that matters
Cook over very low heat. Gentle, low heat lets the filling set and warm through evenly without scorching the pastry or drying the cheese into a grainy, oily mass.
“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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