Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Macaroni and Cheese
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
Break macaroni into 1‑inch pieces and wash the macaroni pieces.
Cook the macaroni in a large pot of boiling, salted water until tender.
Drain the macaroni in a colander and rinse with cold water.
Make the sauce
Make a white sauce.
Add the macaroni and cheese to the sauce.
Bake and serve
Transfer the mixture to a buttered baking dish.
Cover the mixture with buttered crumbs.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the 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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 gives it a firm, pasta-based body.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and butter into a white sauce that coats the pasta.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps make the sauce smooth and the crumbs brown.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
- Cheese
- Melts into the sauce to add savory flavor and a creamy, stretchy texture.
- Buttered crumbs
- Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven, adding texture contrast.
The step that matters
Make a white sauce. Flour must be cooked with the butter before the milk is added, and the sauce stirred as it heats; otherwise it stays lumpy and tastes raw. Gentle heat keeps the milk from scorching.
“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
You might also like
Cheese Making50 recipes
Cheese Fritters34 recipes
Cheese Omelette31 recipes
Rice and Cheese Casserole23 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.