MACARONI AND CHEESE !!! !!!

the combination of cheeses you used does sound good

Fortuitous! I have a wedge of Fontina in my freezer, and was thinking that M&C would be the perfect use (probably on the menu for next week).

I heard a "cooking expert" the other week who basically said there aren't many ways to fuck it up by using as many cheeses as poss, the more the merrier - within reason of course!

I’ve made it recently with a recipe that involves layers of alfredo sauce (thinned with a little milk), al dente noodles, and a variety of cheeses, then topped with bread crumbs and dollops of butter and baked.

discovered that some cheeses melt much better than others

i throw crumbled goat cheese into mine specifically because it doesn't melt. every few bites you get a nice chunk of goat cheese. can't complain

I can't put breadcrumbs on mine otherwise the young autist adult I'm also cooking for won't eat it because of issues with texture, ffs!

don't think breadcrumbs are essential

I've been surprised at how different cheeses result in very different outcomes, but I've like all of them

Sometimes i yearn for a toasted crispy french-breadcrumbs layer on my mac n cheese that i haven't had in ages.

Could you do a secret island of breadcrumbs on part of it, just for you?

For my mac and cheese, I use penne for some reason, and I usually make a cheese sauce with sharp cheddar and parmesan and a bit of cayenne. I also wilt down some kale if I have it and put it in. I know that doesn't sound very good but I love it - kale goes really well with cheese, and it cuts through all the richness so you can eat more. I sometimes fry up just a little bit of bacon and add that too; those packages of chopped pancetta from Trader Joe are really handy for that.

Have never thought of kale and cheese before, that sounds interesting

sounds good

really like breadcrumbs, agree they don't have to cover the whole baked dish

When you are cooking for someone with autism with complex texture issues, one fraction of a crumb on their plate is a potential deal killer

I've put kale in my M&C before and it totally works.

my experience is the hard cheeses - cheddar, parmesan, gouda, iberico and manchego - don't melt well, haven't tried goat cheese but can believe it is also not a melting cheese

but most of the soft cheeses do - monterey jack, mozzarella, havarti, st andre, brie, trader joe's triple cream, cowgirl creamery's mt. tam, and any of the other artisan soft cheeses

damn, i think of myself as bougie, but even i am not bougie enough to melt mt. tam into my mac and cheese

That stuff is like $30 a pound!

sorry lol, I bought a small round of Mt. Tam a week ago that cost $17. I served it to a guest and savored the rest for myself, I was just thinking about it

I think there are other soft cheeses that would melt well in a mac and cheese dish

I gotta say, cheddar is traditional and I find that it melts great! (And since I think you need at least a pound and a half of cheese to make mac and cheese, I don't use something super-expensive.)

I've never tried a soft cheese, actually -- I've done a kind of fontina blue cheese combo with some walnuts which was great but almost not mac and cheese anymore?

If you make a white sauce first, the cheddar melts into it fine.

If you are not used to making white sauces, here's how you do it. For every half-cup of milk, use one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of flour. Multiply as needed. Cook the butter with the flour over medium heat for a few moments (use a double boiler if you have one), whisk in the milk, keep whisking till thick, add your grated cheeses till it tastes cheesy enough for you, thin it out with more milk if you need to, and add whatever spices you want. Super quick and you don't have to worry about whether your cheese will melt.

I usually use 45g of butter and flour to a pint of milk and add dijon mustard before adding cheese(s) but basically that same process as described above.

And use a nice tall 9 litre pan so when I use the hand whisk it doesn't splash everywhere

I tend not to use blue cheeses in my mac and cheese because the sauce comes away with a green tinge.

A teaspoon of paprika, one of white pepper and a tablespoon of English mustard in the cheese sauce is my preferred combo - gives the sauce an orange cast which I like, being American and raised on Stouffer’s frozen macaroni and cheese. Breadcrumbs on top are a must, and that’s what a toasted bread heel is for. Let it dry out and then pulse it in a mini chopper (I have a Kenwood one) but always add a tablespoon of Parmesan and a piece of cheddar to the crumbs along with a pinch of paprika, salt and white pepper.

Oh, and the seasonings get mixed into the flour so when butter is added, the resulting roux is really orange. Then I begin adding milk and lob mustard in while building the sauce.

It will be like A HUNDRED DEGREES here today and you're making me crave mac'n'cheese, that's a miracle.

Melt all the cheeses, and DEFINITELY add kale, it holds up well to baking temps and is so good as a hint of bitterness. I take the center stems out bc of my own issues with texture and just use the leaf parts.

I've never understood bread crumbs on mac. I think it has to do with not liking to combine two starches? Same with potatoes on pizza or serving bread with a meal that already has a starch course like risotto or potatoes. (I do not get the "bread with everything" ppl at all even when I did eat bread.)

I can see kale working but I’ve not tried it. Peas are where it’s at though, as far as green stuff in macaroni cheese

The crumb crust is a texture and flavour thing - it just looks more appetising. Also seconding peas in cheese.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WMoHsvoPSSA/hqdefault.jpg

I've never understood bread crumbs on mac. I think it has to do with not liking to combine two starches? Same with potatoes on pizza

I am being 100% serious when I say you should try macaroni and cheese pizza, it's amazing.

If you make a white sauce first, the cheddar melts into it fine.

Yeah I take it as a given that you're making a white sauce, people who make mac and cheese by just melting nude cheese into their macaroni are weird!

this isn't mac'n'cheese but it isn't isn't mac'n'cheese but it is fucking delicious

https://noteatingoutinny.com/2008/11/10/completely-elitist-orechiette-arugula-casserole/

also potatoes on pizza rule but require practice

A potato bake is just a spud pizza without a crust tbf!

YES!

That sounds amazing stevie

It's not a quick recipe and it has numerous methods involved, but it is DELICIOUS and if you squint you can pretend it is healthy.

I don't think I'm physically capable of squinting that hard but it sounds great

I'm anti-cooked peas because they're too sweet and I hate the texture (again), but I stan for bitter & peppery additions like arugula, kale, broccoli, etc. The kale just bakes really well and doesn't get overdone.

I usually mix broccoli with some bigger pasta varieties and some wholegrain mustard in that sauce. Am deffo up for some kale action now!

For some reason I think a dark green like kale, arugula, chard, spinach is amazing in a rich creamy/cheesy sauce but broccoli is just yuck, there's something sulfurous about the way it tastes when hot and creamy.

fab on a white pizza with fennel sausage, tho

Not mac and cheese but my housemate made arugula pesto the other day and it was insanely delicious.

arugula in place of basil, arugula and basil blended together?

thank you al for your descriptions of how to make white sauce for mac and cheese

Arugula in place of basil. I think I like it even better than basil pesto.

I have made kale pesto several times in an attempt to convince myself I like it and nope

arugula has a really good flavor, so I can imagine it would make a good pesto, I will try it

I saw some Thai basil pesto in the store. I should have bought it.

I find arugula incredibly bitter. I wonder if that's similar to some people's aversion to cilantro?

do some people have an aversion to corilantro ? bloody hell, to quote Meades, that sounds about as imaginable as the proposition of the repeat suicide bomber!