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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni dish layered with Parmesan cheese, butter, cayenne pepper, sea salt, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni in just enough water to allow it to swell until tender and the water evaporates.

  2. Butter a pie dish and add a thin layer of bread crumbs.

Assemble

  1. Layer the macaroni, then layer the cheese.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne between the layers.

  3. Repeat the layers.

  4. Top with bread crumbs.

  5. Add the remaining butter cut into small pieces.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until brown or use a salamander to heat thoroughly.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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, giving the baked layers their body and chew.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the layers to add savoury flavour and a binding, creamy richness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top crumbs brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Boil the macaroni in just enough water. Using only enough water lets the pasta absorb it as it cooks, so the macaroni stays tender and the dish is not waterlogged. Excess water left in the pot would dilute the cheese and make the layers soggy when 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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