Name: Macaroni with Cheese
Ingredients: ½ package macaroni; 3 quarts boiling water; 2 tablespoons butter, melted; 1 cup milk; ⅔ cup grated cheese; ½ teaspoon salt; a little paprika

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Macaroni with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the macaroni

Break macaroni into short pieces.
Boil macaroni in boiling water for 20 minutes.
Drain well and cover with cold water for 10 minutes.
Drain again and place in a baking dish.

Assemble and bake

Add melted butter, milk, grated cheese, salt, and paprika.
Sprinkle with additional cheese and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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, holding the sauce in its starch-rich surface.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Milk: Provides moisture and liquid that combines with the cheese into a creamy sauce.
Cheese: Gives the dish its savory flavor and, when melted, its creamy binding and browned top.

“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.