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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni cheese dish made with macaroni, cheese, milk, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Milk and butter 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.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender, about 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the macaroni.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the flour to the melted butter.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk until the mixture boils.

  4. Cook the mixture for 2 minutes.

  5. Add the macaroni to the sauce.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

  7. Mix in half of the grated cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

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

  4. Serve very 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and body of the dish, giving it a substantial, chewy texture.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth, stable sauce that coats the pasta.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the flour into a creamy consistency as it heats.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce for richness and flavour, and browns on top in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and is cooked with the flour to form the roux that starts the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the flour and butter before adding the milk. Cooking the flour in the melted butter for a moment removes its raw taste and lets it thicken evenly. Adding milk gradually while stirring prevents lumps from forming.

“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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