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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, butter, flour, milk, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 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.

Make the sauce

  1. Break the macaroni into small pieces and boil in salted water until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni and melt ½ oz of butter in a saucepan.

  3. Stir in the flour, then add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

  4. Add cayenne, salt, mustard, and half of the cheese, then mix in the macaroni.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a pie dish, add the macaroni mixture, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, and dot with ½ oz of butter.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 10 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 + milktop 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. Mustard + peppertop 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 bulk of the dish and gives it body once cooked until tender.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the macaroni.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce for rich flavour and a stringy, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the sauce feel smooth.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens when heated with flour.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk sauce to a boil. Flour must be stirred constantly into the hot milk so it dissolves without lumps. Once it thickens, the sauce coats the macaroni evenly instead of clumping.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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