Name: Macaroni and Cream
Ingredients: 3 lb macaroni; 2 oz Gruyère cheese, grated; 2 oz Parmesan cheese, grated; 2 oz butter; 1 pint cream; salt to taste; pepper to taste; triangles of fried or toasted bread

Why it works: Cheese and parmesan 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 and Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Break the macaroni into short lengths.
Boil the macaroni in salted water for 20 minutes or until tender.

Make the cheese sauce

Heat the butter in a pan.
Drain the macaroni and add it to the pan with butter.
Stir in the grated cheeses and cream, and season with salt and pepper.
Heat until hot and serve garnished with triangles of bread.

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.

Cheese + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,041 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 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 of the dish and gives it its chewy, starchy body.
Gruyère cheese: Melts smoothly and adds rich, nutty flavour to the sauce.
Parmesan cheese: Adds a sharp, savoury depth and helps the sauce taste more intensely of cheese.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the dish.
Cream: Provides moisture and body so the cheese forms a smooth, coating sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the cheese and cream over gentle heat. Cheese proteins can tighten and turn grainy or oily if overheated. Heating gently until just hot lets the cheese melt evenly into the cream and keeps the sauce smooth.

“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.

More macaroni and cheese recipes

Baked 52 Croquettes 10 Timbale 8 Casserole 6 Soup 5 with Tomato Sauce 3 See all 313 →

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Macaroni and Cream