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Macaroni, a LA Francaise

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, butter, eggs, milk, and cream sauce, topped with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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, a LA Francaise

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cook the macaroni in boiling water for 20 minutes, then drain.

  2. In a 3-quart baking dish, combine the macaroni, diced cheese, and butter.

Make the custard and sauce

  1. Mix the eggs, milk, and a tablespoon of flour together, then pour over the macaroni.

  2. While baking, prepare a pint of cream sauce, adding a tablespoon of chopped parsley.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Pour the cream sauce over the macaroni and bake until light brown on top.

  3. Serve in the baking dish.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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 of the dish and holds the custard and sauce together.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the gratin structure and a custard-like texture.
Milk
Combines with the eggs to form a custard that keeps the gratin moist.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the top brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk and egg mixture so it sets smoothly rather than watery.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps browning.

The step that matters

Pour the cream sauce over the macaroni and bake until light brown on top.. Eggs set when heated, so the custard firms as it bakes. Baking only until lightly browned avoids overcooking, which can make eggs curdle and the texture dry or grainy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, sauce):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, sauce. 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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