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Macaroni

Creamy macaroni with butter, Parmesan, nutmeg, onion, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in water with onion, cloves, and salt for 45 minutes.

  2. Check if macaroni is soft; if so, strain it.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter and add macaroni, Parmesan, pepper, and nutmeg.

  2. Stir over heat, gradually adding cream until the mixture is ropy.

  3. Season with salt to taste and serve.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 a firm, chewy body.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the butter and cream to add savory flavor and a thick, clingy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and smoothing the sauce.
Cream
Adds moisture that loosens the cheese into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note that complements the cheese.

The step that matters

Adding the cream gradually while stirring over heat. Adding cream slowly lets the cheese and butter emulsify smoothly. Adding it too fast or over high heat can cause the cheese to clump or turn grainy, so the sauce stays silky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, butter, parmesan cheese, pepper, nutmeg, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, butter, parmesan cheese, pepper, nutmeg, cream. 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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