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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with a cheese sauce made from butter, flour, milk, mustard, spices, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in water until tender, about 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the water from the macaroni.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a separate pan, mix the flour with the butter, then add the milk, mustard, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and cheese.

  2. Stir the mixture and boil for 10 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the cheese dressing over it.

  2. Boil once more and serve 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.

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. Milk + cheesetop 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its chewy, starchy body.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, stable sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the flour cook into a roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savory flavor and a rich, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce after adding the cheese. Boiling the flour-thickened milk thickens it fully, but boiling hard once cheese is in can make it grainy or oily as the proteins tighten and fat separates. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily so the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, pepper, 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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