
A Gooey and Delicious History of Mac and Cheese, a Meal Once Fit for a King - zdw
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/history-of-mac-and-cheese
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tunesmith
Back when we were disgusting freshmen, we used to exchange "recipes" for how
to make the Kraft box in our little hotpots in the dorms. I was partial to an
extra dollop of cheez whiz. The guy down the hall swore by a half a brick of
cream cheese. Sometimes I'd splurge with a bit of port wine cheese spread. The
sophomore down the hall _blew my mind_ when we had a double date in his room,
and he sprinkled some oregano into it. I had never even bought a spice jar
before.

~~~
nxc18
Cream cheese is a great hack for making scrambled eggs extra creamy and rich.
I find it buys me some inattention when making scramble.

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kevinmchugh
Buy some sodium citrate and make your mac and cheese with any cheese you like:
[https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-
macaroni-a...](https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-and-
cheese/)

Then make ball park nachos or perfect cacio e pepe.

~~~
MisterTea
I'm going to have to give this a go. My lazy way of making mac and cheese is
precisely due to the difficulty of making a good cheese sauce. lazy way: I
layer in cooked butter coated macaroni and grated cheese then pour in milk to
keep the macaroni moist. bake at 160C/325F for 30+ min. Comes out pretty good
but lacks the silky texture of creamy mac and cheese.

Last time I tried making sauce the gooey cheese adhered to the spoon I was
stirring with until it just gathered up all the cheese. I had a baseball of
cheese on the spoon and a pot full of milk. So I had to really cook the hell
out of it to get everything hot enough to melt which ruined the cheese. Then
upon pouring into the cooler macaroni made it yet again clump up. It was a
mess and tasted less cheesy and I attribute that to my desperate attempt to
remelt the cheese into the milk. Still pretty edible though.

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globular-toast
I've always found the _béchamel_ -based "macaroni cheese" quite unpalatable.
You can take the best pasta (like De Cecco), the best _béchamel_ (made with
quality butter and full-fat milk and simmered slowly with half an onion and
cloves), and the best cheese directly from Cheddar itself but your macaroni
cheese will be a dish so much less than the sum of its parts.

Even worse, the dish many are used to has none of those quality ingredients to
begin with.

The real "secret" to Italian cooking is to let each ingredient shine to its
fullest. For pasta this starts with correct matching of pasta shape and sauce.
The correct shape of pasta can completely transform a dish. Ingredients are
combined carefully such that no ingredients overwhelms another ingredient.
Ingredients like garlic require the most care because improper use can easily
mask other flavours.

An Italian equivalent would be to simply melt Gorgonzola with butter and cream
in a saucepan and combine with home-made tagliatelle and Parmigiano-Regianno.
Much more simple and shows off the character of the ingredients better.
Another far superior dish is Carbonara which, again, takes a fraction of the
time to prepare compared to macaroni cheese.

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Melting_Harps
I hated it growing up as a kid, but my sister had am unfathomable predilection
for that Kraft stuff in the blue box so we always had some, much like her
affinity for Yoshinoya (which was like a blander version of our everyday meals
at home) I always thought it could be better.

When I lived in Switzerland this dish made me appreciate what could out of
come out of that blue box with some creativity:

[https://marlameridith.com/one-pot-swiss-alpine-macaroni-
aelp...](https://marlameridith.com/one-pot-swiss-alpine-macaroni-
aelplermagronen-recipe/)

The closest comparison is its like a Swiss take on a carbonara; gruyerre for
the grautin and shaved emantaller to serve are the way to go after several
experiments in my opinion.

The Apfelmus makes the dish, I personally like drinking Apfelmost while eating
this dish, too.

~~~
Freak_NL
> gruyerre […] emantaller

Gruyere (from Gruyères, nice village to visit, including the Giger museum) and
Emmentaler (from Emmental).

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difosfor
Does anybody outside of the US eat this? I've never run across this anywhere
else.

~~~
astura
Absolutely!

First off, its practically the national dish of Canada, the boxed Kraft
version ("Kraft Dinner") is the is _the_ most popular grocery item in Canada -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Dinner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Dinner)

Germans have pretty much the exact same thing in Kasespatzle (spätzle with
cheese).

Depending how you want to define "mac and cheese," the original Italian
preparation of fettuccine alfredo is pretty damn close, the only ingredients
are pasta, butter, and cheese.

~~~
gherkinnn
Calling Käsespätzle “pretty much the same” as KD borders on heresy.

~~~
fit2rule
Indeed, this is a very poor comparison.

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fit2rule
Since I moved away from the USA, I haven't had a 'proper' Mac 'n Cheese in
decades .. but its okay because I've found an alternative which is just as
awesome:

* 1 Chopped onion * 4 sticks Celery, cubed into small pieces * Pasta (your choice, I usually use Spirelli) * Blue Cheese - the delicious kind with mould * Cream (I use soy-based cream lately)

Cook the onion until soft, add the celery, cook until softening (keep it firm)
.. mix the Pasta (boiled of course, in a bit of salted water) .. crumble the
blue cheese, add cream until the mixture thickens .. let it cool a little,
serve.

A most suitable replacement.

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dsr_
From A Form of Curye, at [http://www.medievalcuisine.com/Euriol/recipe-
index/loseyns](http://www.medievalcuisine.com/Euriol/recipe-index/loseyns)

Loseyns

Take gode broth & do in an erþenpot, take flor of payndmayn & make þer of past
wit water & make þer of thynne foyles as paper wiþ a roller, drye hyt hard &
seeþ hyt in broth, take chese ruaynd grated & lay it in disther wiþ poudor
douce & lay þer on loseyns ysode as hole as þou myȝt, & aboue poudor & chese
and so twycs or þrycs & serue hit forth.

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enobrev
I highly recommend adding 1 slice of american, 1 slice of gouda and some
shredded manchego. I generally prefer a fancy Mac, but when it comes to the
blue box (or Annie's), this is my go-to combo.

My grandmother used to add some tomato paste when she made it for me as a
child, which I absolutely loved.

~~~
bregma
I find most Americans don't like it when you try to slice them. At least, the
first few slices.

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pbowyer
There are few hills I'm prepared to die on, but one of them is macaroni
cheese. It should have two main ingredients: macaroni and cheese. No milk, no
flour. It's called macaroni cheese after all, not macaroni in a cheesy white
sauce :)

When it comes to flavourings I'm a liberal. Chorizo, freshly ground pepper or
just worcestershire sauce are all favourites. Capers work as well. Pickle
(chutneys) too.

~~~
smcl
I don't agree with you but macaroni cheese purism is a bold stance and I
respect the hell out of you for standing by it

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ashman5
Anyone have insight or recipe that will remain creamy even when cold?

