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Baked Macaroni

A baked dish of lasagna sheets layered with a creamy Dutch cheese sauce and grated Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni

Why it works: Garlic and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Baked Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine Dutch cheese, garlic, basil leaves, pepper, and powdered spices in a mortar.

  2. Pound the mixture until smooth.

  3. Gradually moisten with olive oil until it reaches a creamy consistency.

  4. Boil lasagna sheets in salted water until tender.

  5. Drain the lasagna and reserve some cooking liquid.

  6. Stir the reserved cooking liquid into the cheese mixture to create a thin sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer lasagna sheets in a deep dish.

  2. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over each layer.

  3. Pour the cheese sauce over the layers.

  4. Cover the dish.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

  6. Serve the lasagna hot in the dish it was cooked.

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. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Cheese + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Basil + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Dutch cheese
Provides the creamy body and savory flavor of the sauce.
Lasagna sheets
Form the structure of the dish, softening as they bake in the sauce.
Olive oil
Adds fat and smoothness, helping the cheese mixture become creamy.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory flavor and helps the top brown lightly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, garlic, basil, pepper, olive, parmesan cheese):

  1. Oreganofits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, garlic, basil, pepper, olive, 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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