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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni and cheese with a creamy sauce, grated cheese, and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Break macaroni into 1-inch lengths.

  2. Drop macaroni into boiling salted water and boil slowly until very tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter, stir in flour, and gradually add milk to make a cream sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a buttered baking pan, layer macaroni, cream sauce, and grated cheese.

  2. Repeat layers, finishing with bread crumbs and dotting with butter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 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
Provides the bulk and starchy structure of the dish once cooked until very tender.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth cream sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce that coats the pasta.
New york cheese
Melts into the sauce to add richness, flavor and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and helps the sauce and top brown.

The step that matters

Boil the macaroni until very tender. Pasta cooked only to firmness will stay hard after baking in the sauce, because the oven does not fully soften it. Cooking it fully tender before assembly gives a uniform texture.

“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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