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Macaroni As Usually Served

A baked macaroni dish with milk, broth, butter, and cheese.

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

Macaroni As Usually Served

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in milk and broth seasoned with salt until tender.

  2. Drain and place in a dish without the liquid.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add bits of butter and grated cheese among the macaroni.

  2. Grate more cheese on top and add a little more butter.

  3. Bake in a Dutch oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes, ensuring the top does not harden.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Milk + vealtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy body of the dish once cooked until tender.
Milk
Provides liquid for cooking the pasta and adds creaminess to the sauce.
Veal broth
Adds savory depth to the cooking liquid, flavouring the pasta as it softens.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother mouthfeel to the finished dish.
Cheese
Melts into the pasta, adding saltiness, flavour and a creamy, stretchy texture.

The step that matters

Keeping the top from hardening during baking. Cheese proteins and fats toughen when they dry out or overheat, so a gentle oven and a moist interior help the top stay soft rather than leathery.

“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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