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Macaroni Au Gratin

A baked macaroni dish with cheese and butter, finished with melted butter and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Swiss cheese and butter work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 413 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot 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 pieces and place in a saucepan.

  2. Cover with boiling water, add salt, and boil for 30 to 35 minutes.

  3. Drain the macaroni and return it to the saucepan.

Mix and bake

  1. Add half the cheese, butter, and white pepper; toss over heat for a few minutes.

  2. Mix well, then transfer to a dish.

  3. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and pour melted butter over it.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until light brown, about 10 minutes.

  5. Serve in the same dish.

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. Swiss cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together413 recipes

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

  2. Swiss cheese + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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-like cheese and butter.
Parmesan or swiss cheese
Melts into the pasta for richness and savoury flavour, and browns on top in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the cheese coat the pasta and brown.

The step that matters

Toss the macaroni with cheese and butter over heat. Tossing the drained, hot pasta with fat and cheese lets the cheese melt and coat the pieces evenly. Cheese added to cold pasta clumps instead of spreading into a smooth coating.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (swiss cheese, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against swiss cheese, butter. 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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