Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓
Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Cook the macaroni
Break the macaroni into 2-inch pieces and cook in boiling salted water until soft, about 20 minutes.
Drain the macaroni in a colander and rinse with cold water.
Assemble
Place the macaroni in a buttered pudding dish and stir in the mustard mixed with a little water.
Add the thin white sauce and half of the grated cheese to the macaroni.
Melt the butter and mix it with the bread crumbs. Add the remaining cheese to the bread crumb mixture and spread it over the macaroni in the dish.
Bake
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,120 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 dish and, once cooked soft, gives it its body.
- Thin white sauce
- Provides moisture and a creamy base that binds the pasta.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the sauce for richness and flavor, and browns on top.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden topping when baked with the butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat that helps the bread crumbs brown and crisp.
The step that matters
Bake until browned. The oven must be hot enough to brown the crumb topping and melt the cheese. Underbaking leaves the top pale and the sauce loose, while overbaking can dry the macaroni.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, bread, cheese, butter):
- Tomatofits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Onionfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, bread, cheese, butter. 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.
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