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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the macaroni
Break the macaroni into inch pieces.
Boil the macaroni in a large pot of salted water for 30 minutes.
Drain the macaroni in a colander and return it to the pot.
Add beef drippings and a little salt, and heat through.
Assemble and bake
Transfer the mixture to an earthen dish.
Stir in strained tomatoes, milk, butter, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.
Grate cheese over the top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 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, holding the sauce in its tubes and shape.
- Beef drippings
- Adds fat and rich savoury flavour, coating the pasta and carrying seasoning.
- Strained tomatoes
- Provides moisture and acidity that loosen the sauce and balance the richness.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess, helping the mixture bind and stay tender in the oven.
- Grated old english cheese
- Melts into the sauce for flavour and browns on top when baked.
The step that matters
Bake until browned. Baking long enough lets the cheese melt and brown on top through the Maillard reaction, which adds savoury flavour, while the moisture in the tomatoes and milk keeps the interior from drying out.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, milk, butter, pepper, cheese):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
- Onionfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, milk, butter, pepper, cheese. 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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