Name: Frohagere for Toasting Cheese
Ingredients: ½ pound macaroni; 1 cup milk; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup white sauce; ¼ pound Parmesan cheese; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

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 ↓

Frohagere for Toasting Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the macaroni in milk and butter until tender.
Strain the macaroni.
In another saucepan, prepare the white sauce.
Add mustard, Parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt to the white sauce.
Mix well and combine with the strained 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,608 recipes

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

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

Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes

Cheese Making50 recipes

Cheese Fritters34 recipes

Cheese Omelette31 recipes

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Frohagere for Toasting Cheese