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Macaroni with Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with milk, cheese, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Macaroni with Cheese

Why it works: Wheat and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,100 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Boil the macaroni in slightly salted water for 25 minutes.

  3. Drain the macaroni in a colander.

Make the sauce

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Mix the flour with the olive oil until smooth.

  3. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and cook until thickened.

  4. Add cayenne pepper, cheese, and the drained macaroni to the milk mixture.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs and cook for 1 more minute.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to an oiled baking dish and bake until browned.

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. Wheat + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  4. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,802 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, 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 and body of the dish, holding the sauce in every bite.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it cooks.
Cheese
Adds rich flavor and creamy melt to the sauce.
Eggs
Set when cooked, adding structure and richness to the sauce.
Whole-wheat flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked together with the oil.
Olive oil
Carries the flour smoothly into the milk and adds fat for mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and cook until thickened. Adding the flour-oil paste to hot milk while stirring prevents lumps. The starch must be cooked until it swells and thickens the sauce, or it will taste raw and stay thin.

“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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