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Macaroni and Mushrooms

A simple pasta dish of macaroni mixed with butter, cheese, stock, and sautéed mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Macaroni and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in water with a little salt and pepper for 20 minutes until tender.

  2. Drain the macaroni and place it in a clean saucepan.

  3. Pour stock over the macaroni, add butter and cheese, and stir over gentle heat for 5 minutes.

  4. Transfer to a hot dish.

Prepare and serve the mushrooms

  1. Wash, skin, and slice the mushrooms.

  2. In a separate pan, toss mushrooms with butter, salt, and pepper over heat for 10 minutes.

  3. Serve mushrooms on top of the macaroni.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  3. Cheese + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 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
Forms the starchy base of the dish, absorbing stock and butter as it becomes tender.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to both the macaroni and the mushrooms.
Cheese
Melts into the warm macaroni, adding savoury flavour and a creamy texture.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy savoury flavour and moisture that releases and concentrates as they cook.
Stock
Adds savoury depth and moisture, helping the macaroni turn creamy as it is stirred.

The step that matters

Stirring the macaroni with stock, butter and cheese. Stirring over gentle heat lets the starch on the pasta release and combine with the liquid and fat, creating a creamy coating. Over high heat, the cheese can turn stringy or grainy and the liquid can evaporate unevenly.

“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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