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Cheese and Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, cream, butter, salt, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese and 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.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Wash the macaroni and soak it in cold spring water for 30 minutes.

  2. Cover with a plate and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven or on the stove until tender but not soft.

  3. Drain the macaroni in a colander and place it in a dish with a little butter, salt, and white pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the cream and cover with thin slices of cheese, removing the crust.

  2. Bake in the oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes; if not browned, place in a Dutch oven before the fire for 1-2 minutes.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Cream + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes
  5. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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, once cooked until tender, gives it its main structure.
Cheese
Melts into the cream to give richness and a savory flavor, and browns on top.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the cheese melt smoothly into a creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, helping the macaroni stay moist and rich.

The step that matters

Cook the macaroni until tender but not soft. Pasta keeps softening from residual heat after cooking and while it bakes in the cream, so stopping when it is just tender prevents a mushy texture in the finished dish.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Pepperfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, butter. 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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