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Cheese and Macaroni

A baked macaroni dish with butter, flour, milk, water, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cheese and Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Wash the macaroni and break it into 1‑inch pieces.

  2. Add the macaroni to boiling water with ½ oz. of butter and boil until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the flour and remaining ½ oz. of butter over gentle heat until the butter is melted.

  2. Add the milk to the saucepan and boil for 4 minutes.

  3. Strain the macaroni and add it to the sauce along with half of the cheese and seasonings.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased dish.

  2. Top the dish with the remaining cheese.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) until browned, or place under a gas griller.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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 bulk of the dish and gives it a chewy, pasta-based structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps form the base of the sauce with flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy, smooth texture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and, when melted, a rich, stringy body to the sauce.
Raw mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent note that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Boil the milk sauce gently after adding the milk. Flour thickens milk only when it is heated, but the sauce can scorch or lump if left too hot without stirring, so keep it moving and at a steady simmer.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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