Name: Beef and Macaroni Pie
Ingredients: 2 cups macaroni; 2 cups milk; 4 tablespoons butter; 1 cup grated Gloucester cheese; 1 pound beefsteak

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 ↓

Beef and Macaroni Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pie

Cook the macaroni in milk until tender.
Layer half of the macaroni in a pie dish and dot with butter.
Sprinkle half of the cheese over the macaroni.
Add a layer of beefsteak on top.
Add the remaining macaroni and another layer of beefsteak.
Top with the remaining macaroni and cheese.

Bake

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until heated through.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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 pie, soaking up milk to become tender and hold the layers together.
Milk: Cooks the macaroni and gives a creamy, moist texture as it is absorbed.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the layers as it melts during baking.
Gloucester cheese: Melts into the layers, adding savory flavor and a binding, creamy texture.
Beefsteak: Provides the meaty filling, with its juices adding moisture and savory flavor to the pie.

“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.