There are as many schools of thought about macaroni and cheese as there are pasta shapes. I am famously fond of Kraft Macaroni and cheese because, like Proust’s petite madeleine, it immediately transports me back to a Washington College dorm in the 1970s and I am cooking with Shirl. Cue Steely Dan! We don’t need a flux capacitor or a DeLorean to engage in a little slick time travel. We have cheesy special effects in our very own home kitchens.
But feed me a lumpy béchamel sauce and I am flung backward in time and am struggling in the Home Economics kitchen in Dolan Junior High, where I could not sew an apron, and they wouldn’t let me take print shop because I was a girl. I can still seethe with righteous adolescent resentment! https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/white-sauce-or-bechamel-sauce-40046
First, as I was taught in that nightmarish home ec class, you must add salt the macaroni water. And do not even think about adding oil to the water! I stopped Mr. Friday from making this egregious mistake last week. (Shop class must have addled his brain!) The salt flavors the macaroni (or the pasta if you are playing sophisticated grown up cook), and while he misguidedly believed that adding the oil to the water would keep the macaroni pieces from sticking together. What he didn’t realize is that it would be like slathering on a Teflon coating, and none of the precious cheesiness would be able to penetrate the tender, suggestible, easily transmuted macaroni.
In my youth I also entertained a fondness for Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese, found in the freezer section. I liked it best with a thick coating of black, carbonized cheese, scorched over the surface of the rectangular individual pan. I attribute this to cooking in a toaster oven, which could also make frozen pizzas taste hellishly good. I like some things burnt and crispy, and mac and cheese is a dish redolent with crunchy memories. Which is why Amanda Hesser’s Baking Sheet Macaroni and Cheese is brilliant! https://food52.com/recipes/2534-baking-sheet-macaroni-and-cheese Everyone gets a generous serving of crunchy cheesy goodness without the carbon build up.
Monday nights were mac and cheese nights when the Pouting Princess and the Tall One were still living under our roof. Sadly, they have flown the coop, and we are left to figure out something for dinner that won’t be too tempting – those 10,000 steps daily won’t get any easier if we keep scarfing down the kazillion calorie Velveeta mac and cheese from our childrens’ childhoods. Rachel Ray shows us the slimming way: https://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/skinny-fettuccine-alfredo/
Here is a recipe I pull up when we are throwing caution to the wind, and want a carb-laden dinner after having a rather too-vigorous Monday:
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups uncooked pasta (penne, elbow, ziti)
3 cups scalded milk
2 cups grated cheese (Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Munster)
1 cup grated Velveeta (we use Gruyère now)
½ teaspoon chicken bouillon (paste from a jar or that new Knorr Homestyle Stock)
A pinch of salt
A pinch of cayenne
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle the flour over the butter. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. In a large saucepan, cook the roux for about two minutes, add scalded milk and chicken bouillon, stir constantly bringing it to a boil – just. Add grated cheese and Velveeta (or the Gruyère), lower the heat and cook until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth and creamy. Set aside. Boil the pasta in salted water, stirring occasionally, until done. Drain the pasta, and pour it into the saucepan with the cheese mixture. Let stand for about 5 minutes, stirring every once in a while. The cheese mixture will thicken as it blends with the pasta. We like to serve it with a little cloud of fresh shaved Parmesan cheese on top. And some black pepper, too.
I have always been a little leery of the Southern breadcrumb variations and other add-on ingredients. (I can be an obnoxious purist for the most inconsequential of windmills.) I also have doubts about the addition of truffles, lobster, pimento, crabmeat, Andouille sausage or jalapenos. But what can you expect from someone who would happily eat leftover Thanksgiving turkey on Pepperidge Farm white bread with Hellman’s mayonnaise three hundred and sixty-five days a year? Luckily the folks at About Food are a little more epicurean and open-minded: https://southernfood.about.com/od/macaroniandcheeserecipes/r/classic-macaroni-and-cheese.htm
We are linked to the past through some of our earliest recollections of meals and smells and people we love and unfolding events. Go rustle up a nice warm sheet of crunchy mac and cheese, invite someone over to dinner and make another happy memory. Cue Steely Dan.
“Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”
–Mark Twain
Robert Hall says
During last week’s DNO (Dad’s Night Out), I discovered that Trader Joe’s cheddar pub cheese and a touch of butter added to macaroni, made a rather tasty version, worthy enough to add to the M&C recipe canon.
BobHallsr