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Macaroni and Mushrooms

A simple pasta dish of macaroni simmered in stock, butter, and cheese, topped with sautéed mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Macaroni and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in water with pepper and salt for 20 minutes or until tender.

  2. Drain the macaroni and place it in a clean stewpan.

  3. Pour stock over the macaroni.

  4. Add butter and grated cheese.

  5. Stir over gentle heat for 5 minutes.

  6. Transfer to a hot dish.

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Wash the mushrooms, skin them, and slice them.

  2. Sauté the mushrooms in butter with a little pepper.

Serve

  1. Top the macaroni with the sautéed mushrooms.

  2. Serve.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  3. Cheese + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy body of the dish, softening as it cooks in water.
Stock
Adds savoury liquid that the macaroni absorbs, adding flavour and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and carries flavour, and helps the mushrooms brown.
Grated cheese
Melts into the macaroni, adding savoury flavour and a creamy texture.
Mushrooms
Add earthy, savoury flavour and a tender texture when sautéed.

The step that matters

Sautéing the mushrooms. Mushrooms hold a lot of water. In a hot pan with butter, that water evaporates so the mushrooms brown and develop flavour. In a crowded or cool pan they steam and turn grey and soggy.

“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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