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Baked Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with milk, cheese, butter, white pepper, and coarse sea salt.

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 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. Soak the macaroni, then boil it in milk for about 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni and prepare a baking dish by buttering it.

Assemble

  1. Sprinkle a little grated cheese, small pieces of butter, white pepper, and coarse sea salt in the dish.

  2. Add a layer of macaroni, followed by another layer of cheese, pepper, and salt. Repeat until the dish is full.

  3. Top with cheese and bits of butter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes 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. 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. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cheese + white peppertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 it its structure once baked.
Milk
Cooking the pasta in milk softens it and adds a creamy moisture.
Grated cheese
Melts between the layers to add savoury richness and binding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Boiling the macaroni in milk. Milk contains sugars and proteins that can scorch and stick to the base of the pan during a long simmer. Stirring often and keeping the heat moderate prevents burnt flavour and sticking.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cheese, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cheese, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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