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 ↓
Macaroni Cream
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the pasta
Boil the macaroni in just enough water until tender.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine the milk, cornflour, and cheese to make a sauce.
Bake and serve
Place the cooked macaroni in a pie dish and pour the sauce over it.
Grate additional cheese on top.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the top is browned.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,861 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 structure of the dish, holding the sauce.
- Cheese
- Provides rich flavour and, when melted, a creamy, stretchy texture to the sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and creaminess.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and flavour in the dish.
The step that matters
Thickening the sauce. Cornflour must be stirred into the milk and heated so its starch swells and thickens the sauce. If it is not heated enough, the sauce stays thin and grainy, and if the cheese is added over too much heat it can turn stringy or oily.
“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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