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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in slightly salted water until soft, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Assemble

  1. In a pie dish, layer the macaroni, sprinkle with grated cheese, and dust with pepper.

  2. Repeat the layers, finishing with a sprinkle of cheese and breadcrumbs on top.

  3. Cut the butter into pieces and distribute them on top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until brown.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and starchy body of the dish, holding the layers together.
Cheese
Melts into the macaroni to give richness, creaminess and savory flavor.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they toast in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavor and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. Baking long enough lets the surface toast and the cheese melt fully. Stopping early leaves the top pale and the center under-heated, while overbaking can dry the cheese and make it grainy.

“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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