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Macaroni As Usually Served

A baked macaroni dish with milk, veal broth, butter, cheese, egg yolk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Macaroni As Usually Served

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni in milk or weak veal broth seasoned with salt until tender.

  2. Alternatively, simmer the macaroni in equal parts milk and broth until tender.

  3. Drain the macaroni and place it in a dish.

Layer and bake

  1. Add bits of butter and grated cheese among the macaroni.

  2. Top with more grated cheese and a little more butter.

  3. Bake in a Dutch oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes, ensuring the top does not harden.

Finish and brown

  1. Mix a spoonful of the cooking liquid with a beaten egg yolk and cream, heat to thicken without boiling, and pour over the macaroni.

  2. Grate cheese over the top and add bits of butter, then brown with a salamander.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 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 starchy body of the dish that holds the sauce.
Milk
Cooks the pasta and adds creamy moisture to the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and softens the texture.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce for savory flavor and a stretchy, creamy texture.
Egg yolk
Thickens the cream mixture gently into a smooth, custard-like sauce.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture that makes the sauce rich and smooth.

The step that matters

Thicken the egg yolk and cream without boiling. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture thickens smoothly only at gentle heat. Boiling can scramble the yolk into lumps and leave the sauce grainy.

“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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