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Noodles and Cheese

A baked casserole of egg noodles topped with a creamy cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Noodles and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the noodles

  1. Boil the Italian egg noodles in water for about 15 minutes.

  2. For homemade noodles, mix 3 tablespoons of flour with 2 beaten eggs to form a dough.

  3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until stiff, then cut into 4 pieces.

  4. Roll each piece into sheets, let dry for 1 hour, then cut into 1-inch strips.

  5. Cut the strips into thin threads and spread them out on paper.

  6. Drop the noodles into boiling water, cooking for 15 minutes or until done.

  7. Drain the noodles and rinse with cold water to separate and firm them up.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a double boiler, heat 1 cup of milk and add 2 cups of grated cream cheese, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  2. Once the cheese melts, stir in the yolks of 2 beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a baking dish with olive oil, add the noodles, and pour the cheese mixture over them.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Serve in the baking dish with green peas or asparagus and garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Olive + peastop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dough for homemade noodles and enrich the cheese sauce to set it.
Cream cheese
Melts into the milk to form a creamy, rich sauce that coats the noodles.
Milk
Thins the melted cheese into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Italian egg noodles
Form the base of the casserole, soaking up the cheese sauce.

The step that matters

Melting the cheese sauce gently. Cheese proteins can tighten and turn grainy or oily if overheated. Gentle heat in a double boiler keeps the sauce smooth before the eggs are added, so the eggs set the casserole without curdling.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, cream cheese, pepper, olive, parsley):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, cream cheese, pepper, olive, parsley. 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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