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Macaroni Cheese

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cook the pasta

  1. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender, about 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the water off.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a sauce with the milk, butter, and flour.

  2. Grate the cheese and add half to the sauce along with the macaroni and seasonings.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

  3. Brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 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. Cheese + mustardtop 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 starchy body of the dish that holds the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth sauce that coats the pasta.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce for rich flavour and browns on top in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving creaminess once thickened.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce and helps it stay smooth.

The step that matters

Make the sauce. Flour must be cooked smoothly into the butter and milk, then thickened gently; if the heat is too high or it is not stirred, lumps form and the sauce can scorch or turn grainy.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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