Name: Macaroni and Cheese Salad
Ingredients: ½ lb macaroni; 5 lb cheese; 1 teaspoon French mustard; 3 tablespoons oil; 3 tablespoons vinegar; 1 head of celery; shredded lettuce; beetroot for garnish

Why it works: Lettuce and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Macaroni and Cheese Salad

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the macaroni or use any cold macaroni available.
Cut the macaroni into pieces about three inches long.
Slice the cheese very thinly and chop the celery into small pieces.

Assemble and serve

Layer the macaroni, cheese, celery, and shredded lettuce in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix the mustard, oil, and vinegar to make a dressing.
Pour the dressing over the layered ingredients.
Garnish with a little beetroot and serve.

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.

Lettuce + beetroottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together678 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,356 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Mustard + beetroottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 salad and gives it a firm, chewy bite.
Cheese: Adds richness and a savoury flavour that carries the dish.
French mustard: Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the cheese and oil.
Oil: Coats the pasta and cheese, adding moisture and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts through the fat.
Celery: Contributes crisp texture and a fresh, slightly sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Cut and layer the cheese thinly. Thin slices let the dressing soak in evenly and keep the cheese from tasting heavy or greasy in each bite.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, mustard, vinegar, lettuce, beetroot):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, mustard, vinegar, lettuce, beetroot. 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.