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Baked Macaroni

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

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

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 ↓

Baked Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break macaroni into short pieces.

  2. Boil in a large kettle of boiling water for 20 minutes.

  3. Drain macaroni and rinse in cold water for a few minutes.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan, then add flour and milk, stirring constantly until it boils.

  2. Remove from heat, add cheese, and stir until smooth.

  3. Mix in baking soda.

  4. Combine macaroni with the cheese sauce and season with pepper and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking dish, sprinkle bread crumbs on top, and dot with a few bits of butter.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 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

Macaroni
Provides the starchy body that the sauce clings to and holds the baked dish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it moisture and a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the flour-thickened sauce taste rounded and silky.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce by swelling with heat and binding the liquid.
Cheese
Supplies the main flavor and, when melted, gives the sauce its stretchy, creamy body.
Baking soda
Raises the sauce's pH, which helps the cheese melt more smoothly and stay creamy.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce until it boils. Flour must be stirred constantly as it heats with the milk, or it clumps and the sauce turns lumpy. Removing from heat before adding cheese keeps the cheese from turning grainy 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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