Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Macaeoni Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the macaroni
Wash the macaroni and break it into 1-inch pieces.
Add the macaroni to rapidly boiling water with a little salt and cook for about 30 minutes.
Drain the macaroni well.
Assemble and bake
Season the white sauce with salt, pepper, and mustard.
Butter a pie dish and layer the macaroni, pouring a little sauce over each layer.
Cover with grated cheese and continue layering, leaving cheese for the top.
Dot the top with small pieces of butter and brown it in the oven at 400°F (200°C) or before the fire.
Serve hot.
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.
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,120 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Forms the bulk and structure of the dish, holding the layers together.
- Cheese
- Adds richness and flavor, and browns on top when baked.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.
- White sauce
- Provides moisture and creaminess that keeps the pasta from drying out.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp aroma and flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.
The step that matters
Drain the macaroni well. Excess water left on the pasta thins the white sauce and can make the baked dish watery and loose rather than creamy.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, sauce, pepper):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Potatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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