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Baked Macaroni

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Baked Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into convenient lengths and place it in a two-quart kettle.

  2. Fill the kettle nearly with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon of salt.

  3. Boil rapidly for 25 minutes, then drain in a colander.

  4. Blanch the macaroni in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain again.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer macaroni, cheese, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper in a baking dish, repeating until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of macaroni.

  2. Cut the butter into small bits and distribute evenly over the top.

  3. Add the milk and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

  4. Serve in the dish in which it was baked.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 dish and gives the baked layers their body.
Cheese
Melts into the layers and browns on top, adding richness and flavor.
Milk
Provides moisture that cooks into a creamy, saucy binding during baking.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the flavor and helps the top turn golden brown.

The step that matters

Blanch the macaroni in cold water. Rinsing cooked pasta in cold water stops residual cooking so it stays firm rather than turning soft and mushy during the long bake.

“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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