Name: Another Way to Dress Macaroni
Ingredients: ¼ pound macaroni; 1 quart milk; 1 pint cream; 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese; 1 ounce butter; ¼ teaspoon salt

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 ↓

Another Way to Dress Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

Simmer the macaroni in the milk until tender.
Strain the macaroni and place it in a saucepan.

Make the sauce

Add the cream, Parmesan cheese, butter, and salt to the saucepan.
Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

Bake and serve

Transfer to a dish and brown the top with a salamander.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,608 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,566 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni: Provides the starchy body that the sauce clings to and holds the dish together.
Milk: Cooks the pasta and forms the liquid base that thickens into the sauce.
Cream: Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the sauce set as it cooks and cools.
Butter: Contributes fat and flavor, helping the sauce feel rich and smooth.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 10 minutes. Boiling the milk, cream, and cheese reduces the liquid and thickens the sauce. Keep the heat controlled, since too much heat can cause the dairy to separate or scorch on the bottom of the pan.

“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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Another Way to Dress Macaroni