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Macaroni with Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with cheese, sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Macaroni with Cheese

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni with 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

  1. Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water for 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni in a colander and rinse with cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer grated cheese, macaroni, and sauce, repeating the layers.

  2. Top with fine bread crumbs, bits of butter, and more grated cheese.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the top is brown.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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 and structure of the dish, holding the sauce between its pieces.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the topping brown.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that coats the pasta.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savory flavor and a creamy texture.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the baked dish.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be cooked briefly in the melted butter and milk added gradually while stirring, so lumps do not form and the sauce thickens smoothly.

“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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