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Macaroni

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Combine milk and water with enough salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

  2. Add the macaroni to the boiling liquid and cook until tender. Drain and transfer to a deep dish.

Assemble and brown

  1. Sprinkle grated cheese and small pieces of butter over the macaroni, reserving some cheese for the top.

  2. Season with pepper, cover with fine breadcrumbs, warm the remaining butter and pour it over the crumbs.

  3. Place the dish near a fire to brown the crumbs, turning occasionally for even coloring. Serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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

Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown as it coats them.
Parmesan or cheshire cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts into the macaroni, binding it together.
Pipe macaroni
Forms the base of the dish, providing bulk and a tender bite.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft macaroni.

The step that matters

Browning the crumbs near the fire. The crumbs can scorch before the surface is evenly golden. Turning the dish keeps heat even, so browning happens through Maillard reactions rather than burning.

“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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