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Macaroni Florentine

A macaroni dish cooked in broth, cheese, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni Florentine

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt to the boiling water.

  2. Immerse the ends of the macaroni in the boiling water without breaking it, coiling it down as it softens.

  3. Boil steadily for 30 minutes or until tender.

  4. Drain the water.

Finish and serve

  1. Add gravy or broth to the macaroni and let it simmer until it absorbs all the liquid.

  2. Stir in grated cheese and butter, shaking the pan over the heat until melted and well mixed.

  3. Serve on a hot dish.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 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
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its firm, chewy structure once cooked.
Gravy or broth
Supplies moisture and savoury flavour, which the pasta absorbs as it simmers.
Grated cheese
Melts into the pasta to add richness, saltiness and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat that melts through the dish, giving it a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Simmering the macaroni in the liquid. If the pasta simmers too long or too hard, it can turn mushy and the liquid may reduce unevenly. Letting it absorb the liquid gently keeps the texture tender but intact.

“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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