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Macaroni with Cheese and Butter

A baked macaroni dish layered with cheese and butter, seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and gruyere cheese work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni with Cheese and Butter

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan until light brown.

  3. Lightly grease a deep gratin dish with some melted butter.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the macaroni in the dish.

  2. Sprinkle with grated cheese, salt, pepper, and cayenne if using.

  3. Add half of the remaining melted butter on top.

  4. Add another layer of macaroni.

  5. Sprinkle with more grated cheese.

  6. Pour the rest of the melted butter over the top.

  7. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the top is golden brown.

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. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Gruyere cheese + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together322 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk and structure of the dish once baked and layered.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browning when melted until light brown.
Parmesan or gruyere cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the top brown and set in the oven.

The step that matters

Browning the butter until light brown. Cooking butter past melted develops nutty, toasted flavor from milk solids. Removing it too early gives a flat taste, while overcooking makes it bitter and dark.

“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.

More macaroni and cheese recipes

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