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White Sauce for Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with a white sauce, cheese, and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

White Sauce for Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and salt, stirring until combined.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add cooked macaroni and cheese to the sauce, mixing well.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and cover the top with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the crumbs are 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.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour while helping the roux form.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the pasta together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats with the flour.
Macaroni
Provides the body of the dish, absorbing sauce and setting in the baked casserole.
Cheese
Adds richness and savoury flavour, and melts into the sauce for creaminess.
Bread crumbs
Forms a topping that browns in the oven for crunch and contrast.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk into the butter and flour. Adding the hot milk gradually while stirring constantly keeps the starch evenly dispersed. Lumps form if the liquid is added too fast or stirring stops, and the sauce may not thicken smoothly.

“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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