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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Break the macaroni into small pieces and boil until tender.

  2. Grate the cheese.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. Stir in the flour.

  2. Add the milk.

  3. Boil for three to four minutes, stirring well.

  4. Add the macaroni and season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and made mustard.

  5. Cool the mixture slightly.

  6. Stir in about ¾ pint of milk.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered pie dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, and brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) or under a gas grill.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the starchy body and bulk that holds the dish together.
Cheese
Adds rich flavour and melts into the sauce, then browns on top.
Butter
Provides fat and flavour, and forms the base for the flour thickening.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as its starch swells when cooked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and keeps the dish moist.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce while stirring. The flour must cook through to thicken the sauce and lose its raw taste. Constant stirring prevents lumps and keeps the sauce from scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, flour, milk, pepper. 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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