Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Macaroni with Cheese
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
Boil the macaroni for about 20 minutes.
Drain the macaroni.
Cut the macaroni into pieces.
Butter a baking dish.
Layer and bake
Layer the macaroni in the dish.
Add a layer of grated cheese, then a little drawn butter.
Repeat the layering until the dish is filled.
Top with a layer of cracker crumbs and add some bits of butter on top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, or until nicely 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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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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 layers together when baked.
- Cheese
- Melts into a creamy, binding layer and adds rich flavour.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the top brown.
- Cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft layers below.
The step that matters
Bake until nicely browned. Baking long enough lets the cheese melt and bind the layers, while the crumb topping browns through the Maillard reaction. Pulling it too early leaves the dish soggy and pale.
“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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