Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Macaroni
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Wipe the macaroni with a dry cloth if dusty.
Cook the broken macaroni in boiling salted water until tender, adding more hot water if necessary.
Serve
Drain the cooked macaroni and serve hot with a little cream.
Alternatively, heat 1 pint of milk to boiling, stir in 1 well-beaten egg yolk and a little salt.
Or, omit the egg and thicken the milk with 1 tablespoon of flour rubbed smooth in a little cold milk.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 main body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered in boiling water.
- Egg yolk
- Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, creamy sauce as it sets gently.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when rubbed smooth in cold milk first.
The step that matters
Thickening the milk with egg yolk or flour. Egg yolk and flour both thicken milk by setting or swelling with heat. Stirring in beaten yolk or smooth flour paste off the boil and in small amounts helps avoid lumps or curdling.
“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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