Someone just asked me for the macaroni and cheese recipe I used in the first Iron Chef Bloggingheads. Happy to oblige. There are a couple of departures from the traditional in this recipe. It uses a lot of cheese--basically, a two-to-one cheese to pasta ratio. It combines sharp cheddar with gruyere for flavor, and a small amount of processed American and Provolone cheese for smooth melt. You will be tempted, if you are a foodie, to eliminate the Kraft singles, but in fact they are crucial to getting that smooth velveeta-like texture without the awful velveeta-like flavor. And they use rotini rather than the traditional elbow pasta in order to give the cheese something to hold onto.
As the ingredients below attest, this is really, really not good for you. But it's worth it. Also, it will give you an opportunity to use your scale
1 pound rotini
12 tablespoons butter, softened
6 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of whole milk
1-2 cups of heavy cream (you may replace one cup of the cream with 1 small container of sour cream)
2 pounds of good sharp cheddar, grated
1/2 pound of gruyere, grated
3 Kraft American singles
2 slices of Kraft provolone
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg*
Fresh ground black pepper**
Salt
Panko (japanese bread crumbs--if you can't find these, use unseasoned Four-C ones, but the panko make a nicer crust)
(optional for those who like it spicy)
Dash of cayenne pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Preaheat the oven to 375. Boil the pasta in a large pot of water with a tablespoon of salt. Do not be tempted to use a smaller pot because it makes the water boil faster; without dilution, the accumulated gluten will make the pasta sticky and slightly off-tasting. When it is cooked to slightly more al-dente than you would normally eat it, drain and return to the pasta pot. Don't forget to take the pot off the burner if you've got an electric stove--we're doing crispy noodles next week.
Meanwhile, make your white sauce with the butter, flour, milk, and cream, according to the instructions in my old macaroni and cheese recipe--the one I used before I learned that a little bit of processed cheese goes a long way.
Grate all of the cheeses, including the American cheese, in your food processor. If you don't have a food processor with a grater attachment, grate the gruyere and chedder, and chop the other cheeses fine.
In one bowl, mix 1.5 pounds of cheddar with 1/3 of a pound of gruyere, and all of the American and provolone. In another bowl, take the box of panko and mix it with the remaining cheddar and gruyere, and 3 tablespoons of soft butter.
When the white sauce is finished, stir in the spices, except for the salt and pepper, and the larger portion of cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.
Combine the cheese sauce and the pasta in the pasta pot. Meanwhile, use the remaining butter to well grease a large casserole (or two smaller ones, or adorable little ramekins like they serve at E). At this point, if you want to make ahead, you can refrigerate the bread crumbs and macaroni mixture separately, in well-covered dishes, for up to a day.
When you're ready to cook, top the macaroni mixture with the panko and cover the dish(es) with tinfoil. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes (60 minutes if it has been refrigerated). Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and crispy looking.
* Don't give me that look. You can buy nutmeg in a disposable grater from the same folks who brought you the disposable salt and pepper grinders--you'll find them in the spice section of most supermarkets.
** I saw you looking at the pre-crushed pepper. Don't even think about it. The stuff has the taste and consistency of wood ash.
Sounds good. I would add sliced zuchini and green peppers to the casserole, maybe some sliced onion too.
Yum!
That looks delicious....
...ly easy to make fun of.
My god, women. You think we make fun of your recipes because you have a vagina. No, we make fun of them because they're for FREAKING MACARONI AND CHEESE.
Besides, you left out the franks....
Sigh. I bet Twain, MLK and the rest of the legacy would've thought it was really tasty
You stay classy, Nutella.
NO ground pepper tastes bad (though obviously freshly ground is best). Wood ash must be delicious. I LOVE pepper.
Nothing like patronizing comments about people's taste in food from a character named NutellaonToast.
(psst: Nutella = peanut butter)
Nutellaon Toast: You've proven you are a prick. What remains unknown is if you have one. Some time in this century, a microscope with sufficient magnification may finally be capable of resolving this question for you.
This is without a doubt the most disgusting recipe I've ever read. Almost three pounds of cheese to one pound of pasta? Along with almost half a pound of butter? And if that's not enough you can replace one cup of the heavy cream with one cup of sour cream, if you don't think the dish is rich enough on its own.
I know a little bit about cooking, and there is no way in this God's heavan that Megan's mac and cheese recipe would ever, ever work. To me, it's vomit-inducing just to read. I couldn't imagine actually having to eat it. Think of what four pounds of melted cheese would taste like baked for an hour covered with half a pound of panko.
And Megan, tin foil hasn't been sold in this country since World War II. It's called aluminum foil.
I hate to agree with the noisome trolls here, but that is a lot of cheese.
If you actually consumed that much dairy, I think you'd be taking in so much animal life force that you'd no longer qualify as vegetarian.
The Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen people also use multiple cheeses in their Mac & Cheese recipe, for pretty much the same reason, but instead of using processed cheese food, they use Monterey Jack for the smooth texture cheese, 1/2 pound each of MJ and sharp cheddar (to a pound of pasta).
The hell with Nutella... I always figured whatever you're going to make, make it as good as you can.
This is pretty close to the recipe I've evolved over the years. I agree with 2:1 cheese:pasta, and the cheeses I use are Cheddar, Emmenthaler, and Land O' Lakes white American. I'll have to try the nutmeg. I haven't added zucchini, but love adding a box of broccoli chunks or a can of drained diced tomatoes.
If you buy a dog, at least you will have one friend. Chihuahuas would be an appropriate anti-blog anti-dog.
Cook's also uses evaporated milk instead of milk and cream. The new edition of Joy of Cooking uses the same or nearly the same recipe. This one is quite unusually rich in fat. It's also expensive for a meatless family meal.
Megan, have you made this dish before?
Susan of Texas: You have their older Mac & Cheese recipe, which I don't have. I'm looking at the one in "The New Best Recipe". Does the older recipe also use two cheeses? The new recipe uses flour as the binder (in a Bechamel sauce) instead of egg, and normal milk instead of evaporated. Their comment is that the older recipe was very rich and they wanted to develop a somewhat lighter recipe.
I just have the JOC recipe, which calls for 12 oz. extra-sharp Cheddar cheese. It was rich and creamy, but still less than a pound of cheese.
I just have the JOC recipe, which calls for 12 oz. extra-sharp Cheddar cheese. It was rich and creamy, but still less than a pound of cheese.
Ummmm... what?
I read that too quickly and saw "12 pounds butter". Now that would be tasty. In a Homer Simpson Pancake sort of way.
What Anon said. There are weights for pasta and (some of the) cheese, but all the rest is by volume. That must be a mighty awesome scale...
Butter is delicious in pasta. I had a close personal relationship with a foodie for a couple of years and her linguine carbonara was awesome. Pretty much a quarter pound of butter, a pound a pancetta, a pint of cream, a cup or two or real parmesan cheese (grated), salt and pepper to taste. When we moved in together I weighed 175@6'4". Six months later I was 215. Somehow she didn't gain a pound.
I don't know how someone can make an insanely fatty mac and cheese recipe sound elitist, (maybe the snide comments about freshly crushed pepper, nutmeg, and Japanese bread crumbs), but you pulled it off.
And, as mentioned before, this is a pricey non-meat dish. Definitely not the recipe for a family struggling with high food costs.
If I'm being silly, please remind me again why I know that once upon a time John Kerry ordered swiss on his cheesesteak. Who made a big deal out of that?
What happened to the Veganism? Are there any soy cheese alternatives?
t Nyland? What is "elitist" anyway? Why should anyone care if someone is "elitist?"
Dear Miss McGargle, do you really want to waste your life writing for the sort of sadsacks who think that grated nutmeg is too fancydan?
9,522 calories. Serves 8, I hope.
Susan, I've not only made it--it won the contest. So I'm afraid I have to contest Blake's assertion that it would "never, ever" work; it did. A two-to-one cheese to pasta ratio, rather than the more traditional 1-to-1 (or even more traditional .5 to one) is the evolving standard in the New York foodie community, and you'll be surprised at how pleasant, and not overpowering, it is.
As I say, it's not good for you. The dish does serve 6-8, as it's very, very rich. And if you buy your ingredients at Costco or Trader joes, the cost per person on this is less than $3--it could be cheaper, but this is hardly filet mignon.
I concur with The Mouse, you gotta post some weights. Seeing as you just weighed in on the perils of flour flux in varying humidity, you have a journalistic duty to tighten up this recipe. I think it's just the grief of losing MY from the Atlantic, but you must soldier on.
A whole new generation is going to be able to learn that Matt went to Harvard and listen to pontifications on transport policy from one who has never driven a car? Fantastic!
I can imagine someone thinking it wouldn't work if he had not used processed cheese as a binder. As Megan indicated, the sauce would probably break without it. But her trick is a good one. A small amount really holds it together without giving it a processed cheese taste.
A two-to-one cheese to pasta ratio, rather than the more traditional 1-to-1 (or even more traditional .5 to one)
I get an almost 3-to-1 ratio of cheese to pasta under this recipe, not 2-to-1. It's too much.
Also, I would get rid of the nutmeg and replace it with a bay leaf.
I have nothing original to say but feel compelled to vote on all the issues:
Mac & cheese is awesome. Don't disrespect mac & cheese in my hearing.
That's way more cheese than I use.
I don't care if Kraft singles work for this recipe. I would be ashamed to be seen buying them, is the thing.
Veggies of any kind in mac & cheese: Out of the question.
Pre-ground spices in anything: Also out of the question. Ground nutmeg is particularly feeble. The real thing is so powerfully aromatic that at most four passes of a whole nutmeg over a fine grater will change the whole character of the dish. What's so hard about that?
I have never bought panko. It is surely a lot easier than crushing dry bread in a mortar* to make crumbs, but the feeling of virtue I get from not throwing the dry bread away easily compensates.
*I have a food processor but I never use it, because I hate cleaning it.
This seems a little precious:
2 slices of Kraft provolone
I doubt you could tell the difference if you left it out.
I have never bought panko. It is surely a lot easier than crushing dry bread in a mortar* to make crumbs, but the feeling of virtue I get from not throwing the dry bread away easily compensates.
Panko has a completely different texture than regular bread crumbs - whether it be the canned or homemade stuff. It also doesn't absorb as much moisture, so it stays crisp longer when cooking. Once you switch, it's hard to go back.
Megan,
Next time you're back in Manhattan, you have to try the macaroni & cheese at S'Mac. Sarita just took mac & cheese to a whole new level. Delicious. When we're done with Atkins, that place is on the short list for the significant other and me. After that, maybe we'll try your recipe.
If you want to stay away from the Kraft singles, replacing it with a little alcohol should do the trick. Sorta like in fondue, the booze will keep your cheese sauce from breaking and the flavor will complement the mac'n'cheese nicely. Dry white wine, dry white vermouth, or beer (Red Hook ESB, say) would all be good choices. She uses a lot of cheese in this recipe, so I'd use a half cup of beer the first time and see how it goes.
Thanks for the suggestion Matt. A cup of chardonnay did fine replacing the minor cheeses. As for the 12 tablespoons of butter; does that mean 9 tablespoons for the white sauce and 3 for the panko? There is also the question as to the quantity of the panko or bread crumbs. I think this ends up mixing the cheddar taste with the gruyere nicely. I ate it and, after a little reluctance, so did the dog.
It's not easy to make a recipe sound self-important, but by golly, you've managed it.
Yes, thank you, most of us who frequent The Atlantic (and care enough about food to read a recipe on a current-events blog) have encountered freshly ground pepper before and don't need you to inform us snottily of its merits. Even those of us rubes who (gasp!) didn't grow up in New York City.