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Baked Macaroni

A baked dish of macaroni with cream, cheese, butter, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Macaroni

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into 1‑inch pieces.

  2. Drop it into 4 quarts of boiling water and add 1¼ teaspoons salt.

  3. Boil rapidly until tender, then drain and place in cold water for 10 minutes to swell and whiten.

  4. Drain again and layer the macaroni and cheese in a baking dish, sprinkling each layer with paprika and additional salt if needed.

Bake

  1. Pour the cream over the layers, cut the butter into bits, and drop it on top.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 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 structure of the dish once cooked and baked.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce, providing richness, flavour and a browned top.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and helps the cheese melt into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to flavour and browning on top.

The step that matters

Rinsing in cold water after boiling. Placing the drained macaroni in cold water for 10 minutes helps it swell and whiten, as the record states. Stopping cooking this way keeps the pasta from turning soft and mushy during baking.

“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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