WHY ARE THERE GREEN BEANS IN THE MAC AND CHEESE? T_T
also just make tini’s mac and cheese; anything else is scandalous
I think that’s just the bad color temperature of the lighting, giving the macaroni noodles a green hue.
My entry.
Mac, Cheese, Peas, and Bacon:
Electric chair.
This is perfect, you can easily scoop up just bacon and peas to eat and skip the rest
As an American, why bother with the peas?
My fellow American, peas are delicious! Not only does the flavor pair with bacon, providing an earthy, grassy savoryness that complements the salty, fatty deliciousness of the bacon to create a rich flavor, but the pop and mush of biting into a pea provides a firmament to the crunch and chew of the star that is bacon to form a heavenly texture
Nooooo!
Prison.
What’s the charge?
Cheese apathy, book em
I dispute the charge! There’s plenty of cheese in there!
Inappropriate peaing
Peas are a hate crime.
Don’t knock it till you try it!
Everyone is giving you shit. I hate Mac and cheese, but yours with bacon and peas I might actually try.
It is amazing.
No one can convince me they actually like peas. They’re all paid off by big pea
I like peas
Not like this though. I have peas growing in my garden. I eat them fresh and uncooked. Hell, sometimes I even eat the pod.
Cooked peas suck
Garden peas are my favourite vegetable, or petit poi in a pinch. Marrowfat peas less so, though obviously you need marrowfat for mushy peas, and sometimes mushy peas are a must.
Peas are just savory popping boba, what’s not to love?
They’re nutritious as hell and cheap. People just don’t know how to prepare/season them
Eating a meal? A succulent American meal?
Ray, a drop of golden sun.
Straight to prison. There’s no due process here.
America seems to have forgotten what is a due process anyway lately, why would these need one when others don’t for milder reasons
Mac And Plastic
Sodium citrate. It’s not plastic, it just makes cheese look like plastic.
I am confused and afraid, the one on the left appears to have the scooping characteristics of ice cream
likely cause by mac overcooked to hell and back and cheese is nothing but cheese that has all of it’s moisture absorbed by the mac
It’s more of a cheese infused macaroni loaf now
They cooked the noodles before they baked. Those noodles might have been al dente when they went into the oven. 45 minutes later, and they have the consistency of play dough.
Damn, I was wondering where you got those numbers, but yeah, results speak for themselves.
Learn the basics of sauces from a French cooking book/course.
Make a blonde roux, for 4 pounds of cheese, add 1.5 cups of milk and 2 cups of half and half. Add in the shredded cheese saving about a pound to a pound and a half for layering. Add 4 tsp of sodium citrate. Voila you have a cheese sauce that won’t break on you that pours into the pasta easily.
As a non-American, how much pasta goes with all that cheese? And how many serves do you get out of it?
Generally I use 1 pound of dry pasta (I prefer shells to macaroni) per 2 pounds of cheese. Four pounds makes a casserole dish that is 12"×8"×4" or 12-16 servings
Ok, thanks! I tried to make mac and cheese twice, years ago, and they came out pretty good, but even though I don’t remember the recipes I’m certain I went shorter on the cheese (it was 4-5 servings, not even close to a whole pound), shame on me. Next time I’m also trying with the citrate, I’ve been wanting to use it for some cheese sauces for quite a while but it’s not something they sell at any store here and I always remember when I’m about to cook. Also, what cheese(s) do you use?
I personally use 1.5 lbs ofCuba NY Extra Sharp White Cheddar, 1 lb of mozzarella, 1 lb of Gruyere, and .5 lbs of smoked Gouda.
Swap the Gouda for a nice buttery Parmesan if you have $$$
You could also swap the gruyere out for Monterey Jack, or Pepper Jack.
But the cheese in blocks and shred in a food processor. It’s cheaper that way.
God thank you I am so fucking frustrated by how much every fucking person in America has some idiotic combination of cheese and noodles and sometimes fucking eggs??! Which they combine and bake for an hour to make a terrible, dry, bland casserole which everyone insists is anything other than inedible slop like some weird collective delusion, when the real answer is literally just to do a thing from the first fucking week of French cooking lessons.
I make a really good macaroni cheese and have never had the sauce “break” despite not using sodium citrate. No cream either, just full-fat milk. And a good spoon of mustard, yum. Maybe it’s the cheese? I use extra tasty cheddar.
This is, of course, the proper way of doing things.
My practical version for everyday cooking/trying not to consume large amounts of cream looks like -
Bring a couple cups of milk (usually have 2% in the house) to a near simmer, then whisk in another cup of milk with a few fat spoonfuls of flour mixed into it (as a slurry.) Let it barely come to a boil for a few minutes, thickening the milk mixture, scraping the bottom and sides slowly the whole time. Once it coats the back of the spoon well turn the heat way down and add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder to taste. Turn the heat off and add an obscene amount of shredded cheese (usually whatever partially used bags and random slices that need to be used from the fridge.) Once melted, double check seasoning and add to fully cooked pasta for a stovetop version. For baked Mac and cheese, undercook the pasta a bit and save some shredded cheese for the top.
Boiling the mix after the cheese has been added increases the risk of the cheese splitting and getting oily. Adding a slice of American cheese provides enough sodium citrate to create the same smooth, saucy texture. Shredding your own cheese may also be best practice, but I’ve never had an issue with pre shredded cheese.
I’m no chef, so look up a book if you want proper instructions, but here’s how tondo things:
- Mix equal parts (by weight) flour and butter in a saucepan over medium heat - this is your roux, and it’ll be a bit clumpy
- Add milk, very slowly, and mix thoroughly after each addition, consider adding nutmeg - this is a béchamel sauce
- Add grated cheese (and sodium citrate if desired and if your cheeses won’t melt well), cut the heat, and mix until smooth - and this is a mornay sauce
- Pour over pasta and enjoy!
It’s not that hard and the result will be better than anything you get from the store or eat at your aunt’s house.
I made a custard Mac and cheese last Thanksgiving and I liked it so much more than Roux style.
Can’t find any pictures, unfortunately.
Yea I used to use a roux, but honestly it’s not much better than melting the cheese directly into heavy cream. If price was an issue a roux would be the cheaper option.
Mac n Cheese doesn’t belong at a Thanksgiving table.
You can take it from my cold, dead, cheese covered hands!
We’ll take the kids menu from your cold dead hands.
My kids specifically request it for all holidays.
Flight me. 😛
We don’t make it for Thanksgiving, but I wouldn’t turn my nose at a made from scratch baked mac. My granny taught me her recipe and there are never leftovers when we make it.
The entire African-American community wants to
- Know your location
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It’s not a bad recipe. The dude needs to learn to make a proper roux so that the cheese is sauce before baking. Also I would top it with breadcrumbs and bacon not just more cheese.
The Velveeta isn’t needed at all, if you make a cheese sauce. Just add 1 tsp of sodium citrate per pound of cheese and that will make a cheese sauce that will barely break once refrigerated. I’m talking a few tsp of oil seeping out of like 4-5 pounds of cheese in the sauce.
Protip: The reason Velveeta and American cheeses melt so well is because sodium citrate is added to them. You can buy this yourself as a powder, and then add it to actually-good cheeses to give them the same properties.
My buddy bought a bunch of this to make queso dip. It works well for that
You can also just melt nearly any cheese into a roux to make a mornay sauce if you are careful about it, which is the secret to both mac and cheese and queso sauce. Sodium citrate helps to keep it from breaking but is not strictly necessary in most cases.
Edit - yes, cheese and milk
This sounds fancy, so to make it a bit less daunting:
- roux - flour and fat (typically butter), usually in equal amounts by weight
- béchamel sauce - roux + milk, often with nutmeg for flavoring
- mornay sauce - béchamel sauce with grated cheese
When making the béchamel sauce, add the milk a very small amout at a time to prevent clumping, and mix well over medium heat between additions.
I use mustard powder
You’ve saved my life 😋
They should be forced to eat nothing but the others “Mac and cheese” for eternity.
And that’s how you get out of having to cook something for Thanksgiving
Just not in the prison cafeteria, that food qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.
their “solitary” should be together, and in a special section of the kitchen so that they are constantly having to do the cook off until they realise they suck
Whoever gives up and buys the Costco Mac and Cheese instead wins.
This is why the gods gave us nuclear weapons
Do you want a mutant mac and cheese monster? Cause that’s how you get mutant mac and cheese monsters.
Mac & Jail
