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 a L'lTALIENNE
Ingredients
Directions
Fill a 3-quart kettle with boiling water and add 3 teaspoons of salt.
Boil the macaroni for 25 minutes until perfectly tender.
Drain the macaroni thoroughly in a colander.
Serve the macaroni in a hot dish with melted butter and a mix of grated Parmesan and Gruyère cheese.
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.
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Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,041 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Forms the main body of the dish; cooking in boiling water softens its starch until tender.
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Adds a sharp, salty flavour that stands out against the mild pasta.
- Grated gruyère cheese
- Melts into the hot pasta, adding a nutty flavour and a smooth, stringy texture.
- Melted butter
- Coats the pasta, adding richness and a silky mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Boil the macaroni for 25 minutes until perfectly tender. Pasta keeps cooking from residual heat after draining, so overcooking makes it soft and mushy. Testing for tenderness near the end of the time helps the pasta hold its texture.
“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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