Mac&Cheese twist

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
I've been doing "homemade" mac&cheese for years and years -

it is simple, tiny bit time consuming, but way better than anything prepared.

seasoned white sauce, melt in cheese - pretty simple/basic; many additives work for a change up.

normally I do 2 or 3 cheese types - but normally about 50% is in the cheddar family. the other half runs the range of "anything meltable"

so the other day I set out to make some mac&cheese and found about half a bag of pre-shredded full fat mozzarella left over from . . . ahm don't ask.

so it went down as 50% mozz, 25% colby, 25% edam.

stellar hit - try the mostly mozz once!
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
That sounds great, Chowder!

Mozzarella is a good melter and the cheese strings are fun. But I do love the other two cheeses you added for excellent cheesy flavor!

Lee
 

UncleRalph

Quo Fata Ferunt
Site Supporter
I do a mostly mozz version, as I LOVE the stringy quality, but, I also do a nice blue veined cheese in there too, as the sharpness plays well with the mildness of the mozz. Mozz is a great "filler" cheese, no doubt.
 

luvs

'lil Chef
Gold Site Supporter
luv to bake 'em, chowderman. i gotta use mozzarella. i think i've used it once b-4.

usually use cabot's seriously sharp & a mild cheddar. like uncleralph, think bleus make a great contrast. must get to the grocery soon.

lee, i luv the cheese strings. at my place. in public, @ fondue places & places that sell french onion soup, not so much.

thanx for the thought. i'll take pix if i make it soon.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
hee-hee shudda' guessed there's bees a number of mac&cheese heads (g)

here's some stuff that goes in my white sauce - just for ideas - not "everything in same batch" obviously....

the "stds"
AP flour + unsalted butter.
fgbp -
no salt - cheese has plenty
dry mustard - 2/3 to 1 T for a 3Tflour+3T butter batch
cayenne pepper - a threat to a liberal dose, depending on how 'hot' wanted

onion family:
shallots - nice waif of garlic . . .
spring onion aka green onion aka scallion - these taste different than bulb onion
yellow onion - some bite required
the onion stuff I always do in a very fine dice so it brings flavor but not "chunks" to the dish

other veggie stuff:
finely diced celery
celery seed
med fine dice of sweet pepper - red/green/yellow
diced banana peppers
'hot' peppers I reckon would work but no experience there
pimento
mushrooms - fresh portebello - de-stemed, diced, not pre-cooked

meat type stuff:
bacon - must be pre-fried crisp, drained & cooled
pepperoni - diced
(loose) sausage - pre-fried, drained & cooled

the liquids:
usually 1% milk
milk+light cream for company aka "extra rich&smooth"
heavy cream + water (in a pinch)
milk+white wine - add milk first, incorporate, then thin with wine else = breakage

the cheeses:
once upon a time I wandered into the 4-5-6 cheese counts. not recommend.
three seems to be magic max number.

I like to slice/dice/chop/shred/whatever the cheeses into thin section pieces so they melt quickly. this is really big time important for cheese that go stringy when melted - swiss is one - as larger chunks of such get to be a major headache in melting.

procedures:
stuff like onion, pepper and celery benefits from a high temp cooking down/softening.
this is problematic because adding these to the cooked roux, the moisture content has a immediate clumping up effect - so I do exactly that - but one cannot walk away - the clumped up roux needs one's undivided attention/stirring else = burnt stuff.

I like to add some liquid to the roux & whisk it in to get a stir-able sauce, then add the seasonings ala dry mustard, cayenne pepper, etc. then I add more liquid for volume before adding cheeses.

depending on cheese used, some - as the melt/incorporate - will result in a noticeably thicker sauce - I always have some milk/whatever at the ready for thinning down.

some high fat cheeses like to go "grainy" when melted. one can often "solve" that issue by increased heat and constant stirring to produce a smooth homogenous sauce BUT don't even blink much less walk away because over-doing the "jacked up the heat" will cause the sauce to break in a millisecond. if you go this route, up the heat, stir constantly, watch constantly, as soon as the grainy-ness disappears removed from the heat and continue to stir constantly until the pot / sauce has cooled slightly.

the consistency challenge:
if you bake the mac&cheese, the cooked pasta will absorb moisture from the sauce.
it is possible to create mac&glue; done that.
one has to experiment with the specific pasta, the pasta cooking times / draining times.
the other thing to note is - any leftover mac&cheese will markedly solidify/cool. I only "reheat" mine in a non-stick pan adding water to "re-loosen" the sauce.

apologies if I've violated anyone's "rules" - unlike a number of cooks in other Fori - I readily acknowledge that I do not know everything about everything - the only thing I know for sure is I don't know everything about everything - so it's a constant learning experience for me, at least.

love to heard about different approaches and mousetraps!
 

Johnny West

Well-known member
Here is a retro twist. :readytoeat:
 

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