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Macaroni Soup

A creamy soup of macaroni and cheese simmered in milk, finished with butter and flour, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil 1 quart of milk in a pot.

  2. Scald the macaroni in hot water before adding it to the milk.

  3. Wait until the macaroni is tender.

  4. Remove part of the macaroni from the pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Add another quart of milk to the pot and bring it to a boil.

  2. Return the remaining macaroni to the pot along with the grated cheese.

  3. Let the soup simmer, but do not let it boil.

  4. Stir in the butter rolled in flour.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve with toasted 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.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 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. Cheese + buttertop 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
Provides starch and bulk that thickens the soup and gives it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and creates the soup's creamy texture.
Cheese
Adds fat and savory flavor, and melts into the soup.
Butter
Adds richness, and the flour coating helps thicken the soup.

The step that matters

Let the soup simmer, but do not let it boil. Milk-based soups can scorch on the bottom, curdle or form a skin at high heat, and cheese can turn grainy or separate when boiled. Gentle heat keeps the texture 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.

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