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Baked Macaroni, with Cheese

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni, with Cheese

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 ↓

Baked Macaroni, with Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch lengths.

  2. Add the macaroni to boiling salted water and stir frequently.

  3. Boil slowly for 45 minutes until cooked.

  4. Drain the macaroni in a colander.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pudding dish, layer macaroni, cheese, and bits of butter.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then repeat layers, finishing with macaroni on top.

  3. Dot the top with butter and add milk.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 30 minutes 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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  4. Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 structure of the dish, holding its shape as the layers bake.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and melts into the layers to bind them together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the top turn golden.
Milk
Adds moisture that softens the pasta and helps form a creamy sauce as it bakes.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 45 minutes until cooked. Pasta cooked this long can turn soft and mushy, and it keeps cooking in the oven. Testing for tenderness before draining helps keep the baked dish from becoming overcooked and dry or pasty.

“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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