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Savory Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with butter, milk, mustard flour, spices, Parmesan cheese, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Savory Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Blanch the macaroni in boiling water with salt until cold.

  2. Drain the macaroni.

  3. Melt the butter in an enamelled saucepan.

  4. Stir the macaroni into the melted butter until absorbed.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the milk.

  2. Simmer gently for about 1.5 hours until tender.

  3. Stir in mustard flour, white pepper, grated nutmeg, cayenne, grated Parmesan, and beaten eggs mixed with thick cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a dish.

  2. Top with grated Parmesan and small pieces of butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 to 15 minutes until pale brown.

  4. Serve very hot.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the body of the dish, giving it bite and structure once cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and coats the pasta so it does not stick.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that the pasta softens in.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the sauce thicken and brown on top.
Eggs
Set when heated, helping bind the sauce into a creamy, sliceable custard.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until tender. Simmering slowly lets the pasta absorb the milk and soften evenly without scorching on the base. Too hot a heat can burn the milk and make the sauce grainy, so the sauce should be stirred and kept at a gentle simmer throughout.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, mustard, flour, nutmeg, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, mustard, flour, nutmeg, pepper, parmesan cheese. 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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