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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni until soft but not mushy. Drain and place half in a pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle half of the bread crumbs and half of the grated cheese over the macaroni.

  3. Layer the remaining macaroni, bread crumbs, and cheese in the dish.

Bake

  1. Pour the milk over the entire dish and dot with butter.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes until browned.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 provides its starchy, structured body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden topping and add dry texture against the soft pasta.
Milk
Provides moisture that soaks into the pasta and forms a creamy, saucy base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that promotes browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Boil the macaroni until soft but not mushy. Pasta keeps softening in the oven as it bakes in milk, so overcooking it at the start leads to a mushy, pasty texture once baked.

“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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