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Macaroni

A simple macaroni dish cooked with cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese, finished under a broiler.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the pasta

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender but not dissolved.

  2. Drain the macaroni in a sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, butter, and grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Simmer until the ingredients are perfectly incorporated.

Brown and serve

  1. Strew a little grated Parmesan on top and brown under a broiler.

  2. 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the starchy body that the cream and cheese sauce clings to.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the sauce feel smooth and glossy.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and melts into the sauce, thickening it as it reduces.

The step that matters

Simmer the cream, butter and Parmesan. Simmering gently keeps the cream from boiling over or scorching while the cheese melts evenly. Too much heat can make the cheese clump or turn grainy, so the sauce stays smooth only when it is held at a low, steady simmer.

“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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