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Macaroni Au Gratin

A baked macaroni dish layered with onions, butter, parmesan, and gruyère cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Macaroni Au Gratin

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.

Cook the macaroni

  1. In a pan, combine macaroni, water, salt, and onions with cloves.

  2. Boil for 45 minutes, then drain the macaroni.

Layer and bake

  1. In a deep dish, place pieces of butter at the bottom.

  2. Sprinkle a layer of parmesan and gruyère cheese over the butter.

  3. Add a layer of macaroni, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and more cheese.

  4. Repeat with another layer of macaroni and finish with a layer of cheese.

  5. Pour melted butter over the top and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  6. Serve directly from the dish.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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 gratin, giving body and structure between the cheese layers.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and the dish stay moist.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps form a browned crust on top.
Gruyère cheese
Melts into a creamy, stringy layer that binds the pasta together.

The step that matters

Baking until golden brown. Baking at 400°F browns the cheese and butter through the Maillard reaction and melting. Pull it too early and the layers stay pale and greasy; leave it too long and the cheese can turn dry and bitter.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, parmesan cheese, cheese, pepper. 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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