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English Way of Dressing Macaroni

A simple macaroni dish cooked with milk, butter, and cheese, finished with grated Parmesan.

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

English Way of Dressing Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Combine macaroni and milk (or broth or water) in a stew-pan.

  2. Boil gently until the macaroni is tender.

Finish and brown

  1. Stir in grated cheese, butter, and salt until well mixed.

  2. Transfer to a dish and sprinkle with grated Parmesan or Cheshire cheese.

  3. Brown lightly in a Dutch oven.

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. 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. 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its body once cooked tender.
Milk
Cooks the pasta and, with the cheese, forms the creamy sauce.
Grated cheese
Melts into the liquid to make the sauce rich and savoury.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and flavour.
Parmesan or cheshire cheese
Forms a topping that browns lightly for a savoury crust.

The step that matters

Brown lightly in a Dutch oven. Browning relies on heat from the surface of the cheese; too much heat or time can scorch the cheese and make it bitter. Watch the topping closely and stop once it turns golden.

“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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