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Noodles and Cheese

A baked casserole of noodles in a white sauce with cheese and buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Noodles and Cheese

six patty dishes
Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the noodles

  1. Cook the noodles in boiling salted water for 20 minutes or until tender; drain in a colander.

Make the sauce and combine

  1. Make a white sauce by melting the butter, adding flour, and gradually whisking in the milk until thickened.

  2. Stir in the cooked noodles and grated cheese until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered baking dish or six buttered patty dishes.

  2. Top with buttered crumbs and brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. If using individual dishes, place them in a pan of hot water while baking.

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

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 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. Milk + flourtop 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

Noodles
Provide the starchy body that the sauce coats and holds together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the white sauce and the crumb topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that binds the dish.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and melts into the sauce for a creamy, binding texture.

The step that matters

Thickening the white sauce. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter and milk added gradually, or the sauce turns lumpy. Whisking keeps the starch dispersed so it thickens smoothly as it heats.

“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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