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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni dish layered with cheese, breadcrumbs, and a custard of eggs, milk, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

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 and Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Cook the macaroni in slightly salted water for about 20 minutes. Drain.

  2. Grease a pudding dish with butter and sprinkle a pinch of dry mustard in the bottom.

Layer the dish

  1. Layer the cooked macaroni in the dish, sprinkling lightly with pepper and coarse sea salt, and dotting with butter.

  2. Add a thick layer of grated cheese.

  3. Add a very thin layer of breadcrumbs.

  4. Repeat the cheese and breadcrumb layers until the dish is full.

  5. Top with cheese and buttered breadcrumbs.

Make the custard and bake

  1. Prepare a custard by mixing the beaten eggs, milk, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the macaroni and cheese.

  2. Bake until the custard is thoroughly cooked.

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

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

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

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 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

Eggs
Set the custard so the dish holds together when cut and served.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, keeping the dish moist as it bakes.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and melts into the macaroni for a creamy, savoury body.
Macaroni
Provides the starchy bulk that the custard and cheese bind around.
Breadcrumbs
Add a crisp, browned texture on the top and between the layers.

The step that matters

Bake until the custard is thoroughly cooked. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the custard must reach a firm set. Underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make it grainy or curdled.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, cheese, egg, milk, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cheese, egg, milk, sauce. 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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