Why it works: Milk and butter 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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the macaroni
Boil the macaroni until tender but not broken.
Drain the macaroni and cover to let it dry.
Make the sauce
Cream the flour with the butter.
Add the mixture to the boiling milk.
Stir constantly until thickened.
Stir in the mixed mustard.
Add salt and pepper to the sauce just before removing it from the heat.
Bake and serve
In a deep dish, layer the macaroni, cheese, and sauce until filled.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Forms the bulk and body of the dish, holding the sauce between its tender pieces.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that clings to the macaroni.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the flour blend smoothly into the sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats.
- Cheese
- Melts into the sauce, adding savoury flavour and creamy texture.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat and moisture, making the sauce silkier and richer.
The step that matters
Stir constantly until thickened. Flour thickens milk only when heated while being stirred; if left still, it clumps and scorches on the bottom of the pan, leaving a lumpy, uneven sauce.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, flour, butter, pepper, cheese):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, flour, butter, pepper, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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