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Macaroni, Au Gratin

A baked macaroni dish with milk, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

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

Macaroni, Au Gratin

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.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into two pieces and cover with salted water.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then drain and place in au gratin tins.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add a little milk, salt, pepper, and butter to each tin.

  2. Cover with grated Parmesan cheese and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. White pepper + buttertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. White pepper + parmesan cheesetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together193 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy base that holds the sauce and gives the dish its body.
Milk
Adds moisture and creates a creamy liquid that softens the pasta as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the top brown.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Baking until golden brown. Baking at high heat until the cheese browns builds flavor through the Maillard reaction, but overbaking can dry the milk and butter and toughen the cheese. Watch the color rather than the clock alone.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, parmesan 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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