Mac and cheese

Very big in Scotland!

Horrible stuff.

OK only occasionally.

As R2 says! But one of my favorite comfort foods. Thankfully, I don't need comfort food too often!

It is a religion, bitch!

There's going to be a food fight on this thread.

Some people love cheese. A lot. Those people are the main ones that love Mac & Cheese.

I love homemade Mac & Cheese and that’s it.

Southern food.

Pasta with cheese, in all its forms, is manna from Heaven!

Is this literally the best mac and cheese recipe?

Stinky linky, R9

Fat American food.

Serious question... how is "Mac and cheese" fundamentally different from fettuccine alfredo?

* Pasta noodles made from wheat? Check.

* Melted processed-cheese sauce? Check.

Let's be honest... if you took an average jar of "alfredo" sauce, added red & yellow food coloring to make it orange, and poured it over macaroni noodles, it would be practically INDISTINGUISHABLE by taste or appearance from a dish made by making "white" mac & cheese sauce and pouring it over fettuccine noodles.

I mean, fuck, I've made fettuccine alfredo for friends where I ran out of mozzarella cheese halfway through, used white Kraft American Cheese slices instead, and literally NOBODY noticed the difference.

One of the biggest culinary breakthroughs of my adult life was the discovery that nearly every culture on earth has two dishes that can ultimately be described as either "noodles in melted cheese sauce" or "melted cheese on bread". The trick when going to foreign countries that don't cater to American tastes is to figure out what they call their local variant, and order it.

Fettuccine alfredo is equally as vile.

R12, interesting point because (iirc) on an episode of Food Network's "Unwrapped", it was revealed that the cheese flavor in Cheetos was actually blue cheese, and with Doritos it was actually Parmesan and garlic powder. Though Alfredo sauce is traditionally made with Parmesan, and mac and cheese with cheddar. Alfredo sauce is dead simple to make at home. But for mac and cheese, personally I just stick with Stouffers. It's not worth the cost and hassle to make from scratch, and most peoples "home made" mac and cheese come out terrible imo.

Good with BBQ.

R1, Packaged mac 'n cheese does not compare to homemade.

R11, There are quick & easy versions of this child & adult fav that do not use high-fat, chemical-laden processed American cheese.

R12, Mac 'n cheese does not have to be high fat and loaded with butter, cream, high fat cheese. Up the flavor with mustard, garlic, Worcester Sauce or hot sauce instead.

Baked Pasta in a cheese sauce.

Nothing very exciting about it.

R17, It's very cheap, quick to make, and easy to chew for young & old.

R18 Fair comment.

Just tastes a bit bland.

[quote]I mean, fuck, I've made fettuccine alfredo for friends where I ran out of mozzarella cheese halfway through, used white Kraft American Cheese slices instead, and literally NOBODY noticed the difference.

WTF?! Alfredo sauce is not made with mozzarella cheese. No wonder no one noticed the difference in your version when you subbed American cheese.

[quote]One of the biggest culinary breakthroughs of my adult life was the discovery that nearly every culture on earth has two dishes that can ultimately be described as either "noodles in melted cheese sauce" or "melted cheese on bread". The trick when going to foreign countries that don't cater to American tastes is to figure out what they call their local variant, and order it.

Yeah, good luck with that in Asia.

Is it really big in Scotland?

R20, I agree. Back in the 90's I worked as a cook for a well known chain restaurant and made a *lot* of alfredo's. It's just parm, heavy cream and butter. Add the butter and cream to the pan, bring it to a bubbling simmer then take it off the heat and add the fresh (not that bottled shelf stable shit) and gently stir it until it forms a creamy sauce. So simple.

But when do you add the mozzarella and American cheese slices?

[quote]Melted processed-cheese sauce

Never.

Start with a béchamel and add a few high-quality cheeses.

SAUCE 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups whole milk 4 ounces grated cheddar cheese, grated 4 ounces grated fontina cheese, grated 4 ounces grated Gruyère cheese, grated 4 ounces grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated ½ teaspoon coarse salt ¼ to ½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

PASTA 8 ounces penne, shells, or other bite-sized pasta 4 ounces grated Parmigiano-Reggiano ¼ to ½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder Instructions

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Continue whisking and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Cook until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add cheeses, salt, chili powder and garlic powder. Stir until cheese is melted and all ingredients are incorporated, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter an 8-inch baking dish. Cook pasta 2 minutes less than package directions. Rinse pasta in cold water and drain well.

Combine pasta and sauce in a medium bowl; mix thoroughly. Scrape the pasta into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining cheeses and chili powder.

Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes.

Starch + cheese

Potatoes au gratin

I used to love Stouffer's potato au gratin but alas, they stopped making it.

Pioneer Woman has best macaroni and cheese recipe ever. It includes a blend of cheeses you prefer, dry mustard and a tempered egg, baked with breadcrumbs.

Despite the risk of being labeled “Racist” by some of you, I recently discovered an interesting fact about Mac & Cheese.

I work in an office where the staff is predominantly African American and when we had our potluck Holiday party everyone kept asking about who was making/bringing the Macaroni and Cheese and when it was going to appear on the food table. I mean people were REALLY focused on the Mac & Cheese, and it turned out that the boss had claimed that dish for himself to bring.

It really was delicious, but I remained baffled as to all the fuss about it UNTIL I READ THE ARTICLE BELOW. Fascinating stuff!

I LOVE Kraft macaroni and cheese - nothing fancy for me!

1) Well made, it’s delicious.

2) It’s classic comfort food.

3) It’s a childhood favorite. EVERY kid likes it and everyone has fond memories of it.

4) It can be a side dish or a main.

5) It’s affordable, versatile and adaptable. It can be made with expensive or cheap ingredients, in individual or massive batches, simply or with toppings or add-ins, baked or creamy/stove-top, and easily translated to vegan, gluten free, non-dairy, etc. The cheese variations alone are almost infinite.

So many calories.

Have a small portion with a side salad, R31.

People need to eat bro.. Mac and cheese is for kids really.

I use the Joy of Cooking recipe, and add thinly shredded ham as I layer it in the casserole. Guests love it.

I use my moms recipe. The secret when making the cheese sauce (whole milk, butter and shredded sharp cheddar) is to add some garlic powder and paprika. That little bit of spice really gives it some nice subtle flavor. And I only use cavatappi pasta!

R28 I remember reading that article and BEING highly offended, especially since it was published in a Southern newspaper. The article might be true outside of the South. But, we all take Macaroni and Cheese very serious in the South, regardless of race. My white family would NEVER make it from a box mix, unless we were making it for small children. Plus, if you ever look at church cookbooks in the South, which is where you find the best Southern recipes, there will be dozen of recipes for Macaroni and Cheese but none will be talking about Kraft Mac & Cheese. Also, why are people talking about a cheese sauce? You do not make a cheese sauce. My Macaroni and Cheese has Colby Jack, Medium Cheddar, and Parmesan mixed with the noodles, to that you add a mixture of eggs, cream, milk, butter, salt, pepper, paprika, and a little flour, you place a layer in the bottom of a casserole dish, top with Sharp Cheddar, and repeat until the dish is full, then baked.

It's White Trash garbage food, currently pretending to be "in"

Homemade mac and cheese is my single favorite food.

R37 I'm sure that whatever food you prefer, was at one time considered peasant food.

I made this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that turned out great. Maybe not as good as baked but a lot less trouble. Note that the American cheese is a block from the deli, not the horrible sliced stuff.

Mac and cheese on the stovetop is not real mac and cheese.

It's garbage and not good for you. Even if made with expensive cheese and pasta.

Did you read my comment r41? I said it may not be quite as good as baked. But it doesn’t require three pans, a casserole dish and hours around the stove either.

R42 Anything can be bad for you if it is all you eat. Baked Macaroni and Cheese is not an everyday food, or even a once a week food, it is for special occasions. In my family we have it for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and maybe two or three other times a year. If one cannot have the occasional high fat comfort food, then there is no reason to live.

[quote]Very big in Scotland!

Did you mean that particular brand? My Scottish partner says he’s never seen that in his life.

I’m a fan but I’m also very particular about my mac and cheese. It needs to hold together a little bit but not be a noodle cake. It needs to be a little saucy but not so much that it’s just noodles in sauce. It also needs a nice sharp cheddar so it’s not too bland.

So few people make it the way I like, I almost never have it.

[quote]R40 I said it may not be quite as good as baked. But it doesn’t require three pans, a casserole dish and hours around the stove either.

I was surprised the first time I made it that it’s fairly complicated. You have to make a roux, then a bechemel sauce...then...then...

Macaroni and cheese is best the way nature intended it - just macaroni and cheese sauce in the proper proportions. If you start adding stuff to it, you ruin it!

Which is why I'm against the current trend of "gourmet" mac and cheese with too much crap added. Any form of seafood absolutely RUINS it, or vegetables, or adding chicken or large amounts of bacon. Okay, maybe I'll allow a tiny sprinkle of crushed crispy bacon or some bits of ham, but anything else ruins the dish.

Southerners (usually they seem to be white) are so tiresome about food. They claim to have invented all kinds of stuff and usually it turns out the food goes back to the UK or Africa. Mac & cheese probably has English roots (think all that cheddar) which would explain the Scottish version. When it's made from scratch it really is a thing of beauty--ingredients like dry mustard make a difference. The stuff out of the box and the institutional versions are just vile.

I never liked mac and cheese, but that was because it was made from a box (Velveeta). Then I had it with southern style BBQ, the way it's supposed to be eaten, and I 'got it.'

It's delicious.

Most people are mildly retarded.

I've made many homemade Mac-n-Cheese recipes, including some that were quite labor intensive with 5 cheeses, egg, gourmet ingredients, etc.........but THIS simple recipe is hands down THE best I've ever had. I don't make it any other way now.

8 ounces elbow pasta

15 ounces prepared alfredo sauce (I use fresh Buittoni)

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

8 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded and divided

4 ounces jarlsberg cheese, shredded (any "melty" cheese is fine....I used Havarti)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions to "Al Dente" doneness. Drain and place in a large bowl. Pour alfredo sauce and dijon mustard over the cooked pasta and stir. Add in 3/4 of the sharp cheddar and all of the Jarlsberg and parmesan cheese. Stir until well combined. Spray an 8"x 8" baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and spoon pasta into the dish. Sprinkle remaining sharp cheddar over the pasta. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

Note: you can also sprinkle some buttered bread crumbs on top (melt 2T butter and mix in 1/4 c bread crumbs) before baking to get a crispy topping.

R25 loses me at the addition of garlic powder and too many disparate cheeses.

Rub casserole with clove of garlic instead, and stick to two cheeses max (Gruyere and Emmenthal is the greatest blend).

I could always take it or leave it, now I pretty much leave it. Strangely I have lost my taste for pasta in general. I still love cheese though.

It’s the best thing on earth. My mouth is watering just thinking it❤️

R49 Considering that most people in the South came from either the UK or Africa, why would you be surprised that their food would likewise. But, Macaroni and Cheese comes from Italy and France. Thomas Jefferson and James Hemings(his slave chef) discovered the dish while in Paris, and brought it to America.

DL fave Ina Garten's Lobster Mac & Cheese.

There were recipes for mac and cheese in England in the 18th century. The Thomas Jefferson story sounds apocryphal.

R59 the English Macaroni recipes from that time, would resembles more the soupy stove-top versions, but the Jefferson version which he served at the White House in 1802, was a baked casserole or pie.

After years of tinkering with homemade mac and cheese, I concluded that it's a waste of nice cheese to pile it on in assorted blends. Pick one strong cheese, add it to bechamel, then adjust with Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. (I also use onions and mustard in my recipe, but the basic "I want it cheesier!" is covered by bechamel on the front end and fine salt on the back end -- adding more/different cheese just makes it heavier, not actually tastier.)

The English version was called a pie. Given the multiple varieties of the present, claiming Jefferson's as the most authetic is just hubris.

OP, macaroni and cheese is better than religion. Far better. But so is a boil on your ass.

I find Mac and cheese is the perfect vehicle for hiding veggies that the little ones and DH won’t eat. It’s the perfect way to sneak in more nutrients. They just gobble it right up without knowing it’s good for them. Shhh, it’ll be our little secret.🤫

Easy, make ahead, lower-fat, 1 step, dump & bake version. Add-ins options too.

Food based religion? You must mean bacon. 'Cause people are fucking crazy about bacon.

KD (Kraft Dinner) is religion in Canada. One must have 10-12 boxes on hand at all times. Also, some enjoy their religion with ketchup. It's a complete meal.

R67, Packaged mac 'n cheese with ketchup? Hot sauce is a good addition if you're not using very flavorful cheese.

R12 knows nothing about the world. Every culture has cheese based recipes?! Not by a long shot.

Referring to it as mac and cheese makes it sound so trailer park. Macaroni and cheese sounds classier.

I make it with cauliflower instead of macaroni.

R71, you are keto-rific!

I love Mac and cheese but,like many do with drugs, I’m always looking for the perfect tasting one. I ultimately found the best Mac and cheese ever at a diner in Manhattan— but a year later, their chef left and the replacement’s version was terrible in comparison.

[quote] One of the biggest culinary breakthroughs of my adult life was the discovery that nearly every culture on earth has two dishes that can ultimately be described as either "noodles in melted cheese sauce" or "melted cheese on bread".

None of the Asian cultures have either of these

I always thought Mac and Cheese was an American phenomenon. None of my friends in Europe have ever heard of it

Agree r27. I even grew up in the south and while I don't dislike mac and cheese, I find it very overrated.

Its pasta and cheese. That's fine but it isn't that interesting, very few really achieve something memorable.

7 Cheese Mac is pretty much the best.

Oops, meant to refer to r17*

It’s the food of kings, and queens

I used to make boxed Mac and cheese (store brand) all the time when I was a poor college student. I’d sometimes stir curry powder into it if I wanted to jazz it up.

Did someone say Mac?

r64=Super Frau!

It's cheese and macaroni, gosh darn it!

I only dream of it.

[quote] find Mac and cheese is the perfect vehicle for hiding veggies that the little ones and DH won’t eat. It’s the perfect way to sneak in more nutrients. They just gobble it right up without knowing it’s good for them. Shhh, it’ll be our little secret.

Are your children blind & mentally challenged? Vegetables have taste, texture and color. You can actually see them, unless they’re pureed in which case you can still taste them.

I don’t like macaroni & cheese and I never have. Not the boxed stuff & not the oven baked stuff, either. I’d rather have a good macaroni salad (minus the idiotic sweet relish southerners & midwesterners put in it) or lasagna.

I remember when some immigrants from India opened a Mac n cheese restaurant near NYU. It was a new concept. Now mac n cheese places are everywhere across the US.

R85. I'm pretty sure that was a parody post-- taking the piss out of the many fraus infesting DL of late.

R58, now that one I would eat in a minute. That really looks good, although I imagine once you eat out the lobster pieces you're left with just mac and cheese which I don't think I'd like. What I would like is a about 5 portions of Ina's lobster mac and cheese just so I could eat out all the cheese covered lobster and leave the rest behind.

I imagine it's not difficult to make just cheese sauce covered lobster but I can't find good lobster. I'm a hypocrite and I will eat seafood but I can't bring myself to kill it. So, I buy lobster, not often because of the expense, already steamed by the fish guy. It is almost always tough, especially the tail. If I could get really good already cooked lobster I'd try to make it without the mac. I just don't why pasta is a turn off to me these days. I eat potatoes, rich, sweet potatoes, but for some reason I've lost my taste for pasta and for the most part for bread. Maybe because there is no bakery near me and I can't get good bread anymore.

It causes rock hard stools

Baked pasta dishes are a standard in Italian cooking.

Pasta al formaggio al forno.

This photo of John Lennon from one of many delightfully bizarre scenes in "Magical Mystery Tour" shows him shoveling spaghetti but if you squint you might think it is mac and cheese. I am a mac'n'cheese fan. Just could not resist this image almost relating to the subject line of this thread