Name: Macaroni with Cheese Sauce
Ingredients: 1 package macaroni, broken; 1 onion, stuck with 6 cloves; 1 tablespoon salt; 2 quarts boiling water; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Onion and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Macaroni with Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

In a large saucepan, melt the butter.
Add the onion with cloves, boiling water, salt, and macaroni.
Cook until tender, about 20 minutes, then remove the onion.
Drain the macaroni and blanch it.
Reheat in cheese sauce.

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.

Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Clove + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,045 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).