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Macaroni, As Usually Served

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni, As Usually Served

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

  1. Boil macaroni in milk or veal broth with salt until tender.

  2. Drain macaroni.

  3. Place in a dish.

  4. Add butter and grated cheese.

  5. Top with more cheese and butter.

Make the custard

  1. Bake in a Dutch oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

  2. Simmer macaroni in half milk and half broth until tender.

  3. Mix egg yolk with cream.

  4. Heat to thicken.

  5. Pour over macaroni.

  6. Grate cheese on top.

  7. Brown with a salamander.

Bake and serve

  1. Simmer macaroni in broth with mace and salt until tender.

  2. Place in a dish.

  3. Cover with cheese and bread crumbs.

  4. Pour melted butter over.

  5. Roast in a Dutch oven until browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 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 a firm, chewy bite when cooked until tender.
Cheese
Provides richness and savory flavor, and melts into the sauce to bind it together.
Egg yolk
Thickens the custard sauce as it heats, adding richness and a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown during baking.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden crust on top when baked.

The step that matters

Heat to thicken. Egg yolk thickens only at moderate heat. If it is heated too fast or too high, it can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, cheese, egg, cream, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, cheese, egg, cream, bread. 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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