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Baked Macaroni

A baked pasta dish with macaroni, cheese, and optional tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni

Why it works: Cheese and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,896 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cook the macaroni

  1. Bring 10 gallons of water to a boil in a large pot and add the salt.

  2. Break the macaroni into pieces and add to the boiling water.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes, then strain the macaroni.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease pans and place the macaroni in them.

  2. Grate the cheese on top of the macaroni.

  3. If desired, add tomatoes before baking.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 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. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 once cooked and baked.
Cheese
Melts into a creamy sauce that coats the pasta and browns on top.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that balance the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Boil for 30 minutes, then strain the macaroni. Pasta cooked too long turns soft and mushy, and it keeps absorbing liquid in the oven, so it can dry out or lose texture after baking.

“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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