Name: Baked Macaroni
Ingredients: 1 lb macaroni; ½ cup cream or milk; ¼ lb grated cheese; 2 tablespoons butter; Salt to taste; Paprika or cayenne to taste

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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Boil the macaroni according to package instructions. Drain well.
Mix the drained macaroni with the grated cheese, adding paprika and salt to taste.

Assemble and bake

Transfer the mixture to a small baking dish.
Cut the butter into small pieces and distribute it over the top.
Pour the cream or milk over the macaroni mixture.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the top is browned.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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 boiled and baked.
Grated cheese: Melts into the macaroni and browns on top, adding richness and flavor.
Cream or milk: Adds moisture and creaminess that keeps the pasta from drying out in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.

“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.