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Macaroni and Cheese

A baked macaroni dish with cheese sauce and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Macaroni and Cheese

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 and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Break macaroni into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Cook in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender.

  3. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add milk, stirring until thickened.

  3. Add cheese and stir until melted.

  4. Combine macaroni with cheese sauce and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a buttered baking dish and top with breadcrumbs.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth roux-based sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding richness and savory flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps form the roux with the flour.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually add milk, stirring until thickened. Adding milk slowly to the hot roux while stirring lets the starch disperse evenly. Adding it all at once can create lumps that are hard to smooth out.

“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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