Skip to main content
Preserve

Macaroni and Parmesan Cheese

A simple pasta dish of boiled macaroni mixed with Parmesan, butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni and Parmesan Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Wash the macaroni and soak it in cold spring water for 30 minutes.

  2. Boil the macaroni in 1 quart of water with a small piece of butter, salt, and pepper until tender.

  3. Drain the macaroni and cut it into 2-inch pieces.

Combine and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the macaroni, grated Parmesan, butter, cream, and a little pepper.

  2. Stir over medium heat until well combined, then serve immediately.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (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 + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Naples macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a firm, chewy bite.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding salty, savoury flavour and body.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the cheese melt smoothly into a silky coating.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, helping the cheese and butter form a looser sauce.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat until well combined. High heat can make the cheese clump or turn grainy as its proteins tighten and its fat separates. Gentle heat lets the Parmesan melt evenly into the butter and cream for a smooth coating.

“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.

More macaroni with parmesan recipes

Cheese 4 See all 10 →

You might also like

Green Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding64 recipesCornmeal mushCornmeal mush12 recipes