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 and Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the macaroni
Drop macaroni into boiling salted water and cook until tender.
Drain and rinse macaroni in cold water.
Place macaroni in a buttered baking dish.
Make the cheese sauce
In a saucepan, melt butter, then add milk, salt, and pepper to make a cream sauce.
Melt grated cheese into the cream sauce.
Bake and serve
Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni and bake for about 25 minutes.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Forms the pasta body of the dish, giving it structure and a tender bite.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the cream sauce, carrying flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, giving it body and smoothness.
- Cheese
- Melts into the sauce to provide savory flavor and a creamy, cohesive texture.
The step that matters
Melt the cheese into the sauce gently. High heat can make cheese proteins tighten and separate, leaving the sauce grainy or oily. Melting it slowly over low heat keeps the sauce smooth and cohesive.
“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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