Why it works: Butter and milk 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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the macaroni
Soak the macaroni in cold water for 1 hour.
Boil the macaroni until tender.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a pan, then add the flour and stir well.
Add the milk and a little salt, stirring until it boils.
Mix in the cooked macaroni.
Assemble and bake
Layer some macaroni mixture in a pie dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and dry mustard.
Repeat layers, finishing with a layer of grated cheese.
Dot the top layer with small pieces of butter.
Optionally, place a border of pastry around the edge of the pie dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the pastry is nicely done.
Serve hot on a plate with a folded napkin.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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, softened by soaking and boiling before baking.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat and adds richness to the buttery top layer.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that binds the macaroni.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess when it is brought to a boil.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and texture.
The step that matters
Bring the sauce to a boil while stirring. Flour thickens milk only once it reaches a boil, and stirring keeps the starch dispersed so lumps do not form. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce, and letting it sit can scorch the bottom of the pan.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, cheese):
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, cheese. 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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