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Macaroni Au Gratin

A baked macaroni dish with beef broth, milk, 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: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Put macaroni in a fireproof brown earthenware pot and cover with beef broth.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally and adding more stock as needed.

  2. Once done, add hot milk, grated cheese, salt, and pepper.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer to an oval dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and additional cheese.

  2. Brown under a broiler and serve.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the body of the dish, absorbing broth and milk to become tender and substantial.
Beef broth
Cooks the pasta and adds savory flavor and moisture as it is absorbed.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, helping form a smooth sauce around the pasta.
Grated parmesan cheese or gruyere cheese
Melts into the sauce for richness and saltiness, and browns under the broiler.
Fine white bread crumbs
Forms a crisp topping that browns under the broiler for texture contrast.

The step that matters

Brown under a broiler. Broilers brown quickly, so the crumb and cheese topping can burn before it is golden. Watch closely and remove the dish as soon as the top is evenly colored.

“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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