Name: Macaroni As Usually Served
Ingredients: macaroni; milk; weak veal broth; coarse sea salt; butter; grated 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 As Usually Served

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Boil macaroni in milk or weak veal broth seasoned with salt until tender.
Drain the macaroni and place it in a dish without the liquid.
Add bits of butter and grated cheese to the macaroni.
Grate more cheese on top and add a little more butter.
Set the dish in a Dutch oven for 15 minutes, ensuring the top does not harden.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,381 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Milk + vealtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).