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Savoury Macaroni

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Savoury Macaroni

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. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the macaroni.

  2. Simmer for about 30 minutes, then strain.

  3. Return the macaroni to the pot, add the milk, and simmer for 1 hour until fully cooked and the milk is absorbed.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the macaroni to a greased baking dish.

  2. Mix in half of the cheese and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Sprinkle the remaining cheese and bread crumbs on top, dot with butter.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes 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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 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

Naples macaroni or hominy
Provides the starchy body that makes up the bulk of the dish.
Milk
Cooks into the pasta, adding moisture and a creamy texture.
Grated cheese
Melts into the macaroni for richness and savoury flavour, and browns on top.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping over the baked dish.

The step that matters

Simmering the macaroni in milk. Milk scorches and sticks to the bottom of the pot if left unattended, and it can curdle if boiled hard. Gentle, stirred simmering lets the pasta absorb the milk evenly, giving a creamy rather than burnt or grainy result.

“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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