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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, butter, and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni.

  3. Butter an earthenware dish.

Assemble

  1. Place the macaroni in the dish.

  2. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top.

  3. Add the butter pieces.

  4. Pour the milk or cream over the macaroni and cheese.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + walnuttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together410 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy base that holds the sauce and gives the dish its body.
Grated cheese
Melts into the milk to create a rich, savory sauce and browns on the surface.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth texture in the baked dish.
Milk or cream
Supplies the liquid that becomes the creamy sauce around the pasta.

The step that matters

Pour the milk or cream over the macaroni and cheese. The liquid must cover the pasta so it can absorb moisture and bake into a creamy, cohesive dish rather than a dry one. Too little liquid leaves the macaroni firm and the sauce thin or uneven.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, milk):

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, milk. 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.

More macaroni and cheese recipes

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