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Mac 4 Cheese Recipe

This is a lovely reinvention of the macaroni and cheese that my mom made when I was growing up. With leeks, too.

By chow · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheddar cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 984 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By chow. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cheddar cheese + cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together984 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Wheat + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,416 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Wheat + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together937 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,424 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheddar cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,963 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, olive, flour, milk, vinegar, cheddar cheese, cheese):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, olive, flour, milk, vinegar, cheddar cheese, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).