Why it works: Milk and butter 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.
Cook the macaroni
Boil the macaroni in water until tender.
Cut the cooked macaroni into convenient pieces.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine flour, milk, and butter; bring to a boil to make a sauce.
Stir in grated cheese until it melts.
Add the macaroni and mix well.
Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and mustard.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a deep baking dish.
Sprinkle with additional cheese.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until browned.
Serve immediately.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nutmeg + mustardtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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, chewy bite under the sauce.
- Cheese
- Melts into the sauce to add richness and flavour, and browns on top when baked.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavour and helps keep the sauce smooth and rich.
- Fine flour
- Thickens the milk into a sauce as it heats, giving it body.
The step that matters
Bring the flour, milk and butter to a boil. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid so its starch swells and thickens the sauce. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cheese, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cheese, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg. 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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