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Macaroni

A simple boiled macaroni dish that can be served plain or with cheese, butter, salt, pepper, or a thick white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Wash the macaroni twice in cold water.

  2. Drop the macaroni into boiling water with salt and butter.

  3. Boil slowly until tender but firm, about 45 minutes.

  4. Drain the macaroni using a colander.

Mix

  1. Mix the macaroni with cheese, butter, salt, and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare a thick white sauce with flour, milk, and cream.

  2. Add the cheese and macaroni to the sauce.

  3. Stir over heat without a spoon to avoid mashing the macaroni.

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

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 chewy structure of the dish.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts into the sauce for creaminess.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the pasta.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the milk and cream into a white sauce.
Milk (in the method)
Provides the liquid base of the white sauce.
Cream (in the method)
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the macaroni until tender but firm. Pasta keeps softening when it is mixed into a hot sauce and baked or heated, so pulling it at firm-tender prevents a mushy result. Stirring gently without a spoon keeps the noodles intact.

“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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