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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the macaroni
Break the macaroni into pieces and place in a pan with enough water to cover.
Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain and add the milk.
Boil for another 20 minutes or until tender.
Make the sauce
In another pan, combine the cooked macaroni with butter, salt, cayenne, cream, and half of the grated cheese.
Heat until hot but do not boil.
Bake and serve
Transfer to a flat dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, and place in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,655 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 body and chewy bite.
- Cheese
- Melts into the sauce for savory flavor and, on top, browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the sauce a smooth mouthfeel.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that, with cheese, forms a creamy sauce.
- Cream
- Adds fat that makes the sauce richer and less likely to turn grainy.
The step that matters
Heat until hot but do not boil. Cheese proteins tighten and turn grainy or oily when the sauce gets too hot, so gentle heating keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.
“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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