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Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with a creamy cheese sauce and butter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix flour into milk or cream until smooth.

  2. Stir in butter, parsley, onion, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Cook over low heat until thickened, then strain.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in salted water until done.

  2. Drain and plunge into cold water to firm.

  3. Drain again and mix with the cream mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Add Parmesan, Gruyère, and small pieces of butter to the macaroni.

  2. Transfer to a well-buttered baking dish, sprinkle with cheese, and drizzle with melted butter.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 structure of the dish, holding the sauce and cheese together.
Flour
Thickens the milk or cream into a smooth white sauce that coats the pasta.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the sauce stay smooth and the top brown.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the top turn golden when baked.
Gruyère cheese
Melts smoothly and adds nutty flavour and stretch to the sauce.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving body and moisture to the dish.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce over low heat until thickened. Flour thickens only when the liquid is hot enough and stirred gently; cooking over high heat or too fast can scorch the milk or leave lumps, so the sauce may stay thin or taste burnt.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, butter, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, parmesan cheese):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, butter, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, 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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