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Baked Macaroni

A baked pasta dish of macaroni mixed with cheese, butter, cream, and seasonings, topped with Parmesan and baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni

Why it works: Cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Baked Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni according to package instructions.

  2. In a bowl, combine the macaroni with cheese, coarse sea salt, pepper, and butter. Stir everything together without cooking.

Assemble

  1. Transfer the mixture to a flat porcelain oven dish.

  2. Pour ½ cup of cream over the macaroni.

  3. Grate a little nutmeg on top and add one or two lumps of butter.

  4. Sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until the top is brown.

  2. Serve in the same 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.

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. Cheese + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 holds the sauce in its tubes.
Cheese
Melts into the cream to make the sauce creamy and rich.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the dish stays tender while baking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the top brown in the oven.
Parmesan cheese
Browns and crisps on top during baking, adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until the top is brown. Baking long enough lets the Parmesan and butter brown and form a crust, while the sauce underneath sets and bubbles. Stopping too early leaves the top pale and the sauce loose.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, pepper, butter, cream, parmesan cheese. 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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