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
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.
Prepare the macaroni
Wash the macaroni and boil it in water.
Remove the macaroni, drain it, and place it in cold water.
Cut the macaroni into pieces no longer than ½ inch.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a pan, then add the milk and enough flour to thicken.
Stir in pepper, salt, nutmeg, and Parmesan cheese.
Add the cut macaroni and mix well over heat.
Bake and serve
Fill scallop shells with the mixture and sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the cheese begins to brown.
Drizzle oiled butter over the top before serving.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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
- Provides the bulk and starchy body that holds the creamy filling together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and keeps the sauce smooth.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens with flour as it heats.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and butter into a cohesive white sauce.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns on top during baking.
The step that matters
Thickening the sauce. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter and milk, and the mixture stirred until smooth, so it thickens evenly. Adding flour to hot liquid without stirring can form lumps and leave the sauce thin or pasty, since starch only thickens fully when heated with liquid.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese):
- Nutmegthe original
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Thymefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, flour, pepper, parmesan 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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