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 ↓
Baked Macaroni
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.
Cook the macaroni
Add the broken macaroni to the boiling stock or water, along with the salt and pepper. Boil for 30 minutes or longer.
Drain the macaroni in a colander to remove all the water.
Bake and serve
Place the macaroni in a small pie dish, mix in the butter and milk, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the bread crumbs are browned.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Forms the main body of the dish, absorbing liquid and giving it bulk when cooked.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the surface brown in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, loosening the pasta so it stays tender after baking.
- Bread crumbs
- Form the topping that browns in the oven, adding a crisp, golden surface.
The step that matters
Drain the macaroni well. Any water left clinging to the cooked pasta dilutes the butter and milk and can make the baked dish watery rather than creamy.
“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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