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Macaroni Cheese

A baked macaroni and cheese casserole with a buttery cheese sauce and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Macaroni Cheese

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni 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

  1. Cook the macaroni in salted water for 20 minutes, then drain and cool.

  2. Boil the stock and milk with the bay leaf and onion in a pot.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and cook for 2 minutes without browning.

  2. Stir in the boiled milk and stock, and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the macaroni and cheese, mix well, and season with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a well-buttered pie dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated cheese, and dot with butter.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve in the same dish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and holds the sauce in its hollow shapes.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth sauce that coats the pasta.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour cook into a roux for the sauce.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savoury flavour and a creamy, stretchy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and creaminess.
Stock
Adds savoury depth to the sauce alongside the milk.

The step that matters

Cook the flour in the butter without browning. Cooking the flour briefly in the butter makes a roux that thickens the sauce smoothly; browning changes its flavour and thickening power, and adding liquid too early can leave lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper, butter, cheese, milk, bread):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, butter, cheese, milk, bread. 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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