Name: Macaroni with Cheese
Ingredients: 2 cups macaroni; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 1 cup grated cheese; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup milk (or ½ cup milk and ½ cup water)

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 with 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

Wash the macaroni and boil it in salted water for 15 minutes.
Drain the water and place the macaroni in a buttered baking dish.

Assemble

Layer with bread crumbs, macaroni, bits of butter, and pepper.
Add a layer of grated cheese and repeat until the dish is full.
Top with bread crumbs and pour milk over the layers.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the top is golden 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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + milktop 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: Forms the starchy body of the dish that holds the sauce and cheese.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and keeps the top from drying out.
Grated cheese: Melts into the milk to create a creamy, savory sauce and browns on top.
Milk: Provides the liquid that softens the pasta and forms the creamy sauce as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Crisp layer on top that browns in the oven and adds texture.

“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.