Which Macaroni & Cheese Are You?

Many recipes have been published for Macaroni & Cheese casseroles and for a lot of crazy variations as well. Macaroni & Cheese is one of those dishes where you grew up with someone in your life – your mother, grandmother or auntie most likely – making the Macaroni & Cheese that defined what Macaroni & Cheese should be for the entire world. It was creamy and cheesy and buttery, and if your family liked spicy there was a little kick to it. Maybe it had a cheesy sauce or maybe the secret was an egg or two mixed in. However that special cook prepared it, what they made was heaven in a dish and anything else is/was suspect or, to put it bluntly, no good! (It’s not nice to call what someone else cooks “nasty” unless it really is, and then you can only say that in private. Mind your manners.)

Let me just say, nobody can compete with that Macaroni & Cheese. Get the recipe from your favorite Macaroni & Cheese pusher and just skip over this section.

But if you are looking to maybe enhance your Macaroni & Cheese knowledge, or if you grew up on Macaroni & Cheese in the blue box (no judgement here!) this may be an opportunity to make your own version of Macaroni & Cheese and start your own tradition.

First of all, understand that there are two classic ways to make “traditional” Macaroni & Cheese: with a cheesey flour-based sauce, or with cheese, eggs and milk. There are plenty of variations, but let’s break these two methods down:

1. Cheesy Flour-Based Sauce : This starts with a roux and becomes a classic form of sauce called bechamel. What that means is you melt some butter, stir in a small amount of flour, then add milk, cook until it thickens, then add cheese. (See, if you were doing this you were using chef-y techniques and didn’t know it!) The bechamel sauce makes a luscious base that the macaroni just luxuriates in, drinking in the butter and cheese. Yeah, it’s wonderful! But some tasters feel that the flour necessary for the bechamel base detracts from the ultimate dairy cheesiness of a good Macaroni & Cheese. Those critics are probably in camp –
2. Custardy Mac & Cheese : No bechamel with this! This is down home, do it efficiently but make it delicious, just as cheesey Macaroni & Cheese. Here the milk (often evaporated milk for a touch of sweetness) is whisked with an egg or two and stirred into the macaroni and the shredded cheese. That combination of milk and egg cooks up, if you do it well, into a cheesey custardy binder between the macaroni elbows and inside, too. The supplemental depth charges of small cheddar chunks that many stir into this version add pure lip smacking heaven to the mix. Those who prefer the bechamel mac & cheese say that this version is sometimes dry and some of the macaroni can end up without enough cheese.

Whichever camp you start out in, this blog is a space where you are encouraged to experiment with whichever version you want, so you can decide for yourself which one you like best. Once you decide on your go-to, you are free to do all kinds of variations, stir-ins, and crazy ingredients. That’s the fun part of cooking!