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Macaroni 4 l’Italienne

A baked macaroni and cheese dish made with macaroni, cheese, butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 4 l’Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Cook macaroni according to package instructions until al dente.

  2. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.

  3. Stir in milk and bring to a simmer.

  4. Add cheese, stirring until melted and smooth.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Combine cooked macaroni with cheese sauce and mix well.

  2. Transfer to a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden and bubbly.

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. 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 + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the starchy body that holds the sauce and gives the dish its structure.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to give richness, flavor and a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the base of the sauce and helps keep it smooth.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Melting the cheese into the sauce. Cheese added to a hot, simmering liquid can turn grainy or oily if it overheats. Adding it gradually over moderate heat and stirring until smooth lets the proteins and fat emulsify evenly.

“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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