Skip to main content
Main

Macaroni Au Gratin

Macaroni au Gratin is a baked macaroni dish with cream sauce, Parmesan, Gruyère, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and 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 ↓

Macaroni Au Gratin

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare a cream sauce.

  2. Mix in the grated Parmesan and Gruyère cheese.

  3. Warm the macaroni in the cheese mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a shallow oven‑safe dish.

  2. Top with breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and melted butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  4. Serve in the dish it was baked in.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

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 substantial, starchy body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds sharp, savoury flavour and helps the sauce turn rich and cohesive.
Gruyère cheese
Melts smoothly and adds nutty flavour and stretch to the sauce.
Cream or milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, providing moisture and a creamy texture.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft interior.
Butter
Promotes browning of the topping and adds richness.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Baking too briefly leaves the sauce loose and the topping pale, while overbaking can dry the cheese and make it grainy. Watching for an even golden colour helps the sauce set and the topping brown properly.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes