Macaroni & Cheese

[fabrisse]

This is the recipe I was taught by my cousin and my mother and grandmother. I've since discovered that many, if not all, other recipes create a cheese sauce to pour over the noodles before baking.

For 4 to 6 (8 if you're for lunch or a bunch of kids)

1 lb of elbows or shells, slightly undercooked. (If it says 10 minutes, cook it 8.)
1 and 1/2 cups of grated cheese (don't use orange cheese. You can get a sharp white cheddar or a strong Monterey Jack. A mix of the two is also all right.)
1 two ounce (approximate) chunk of cheese
butter to grease the pan and dot the top
Milk -- I can't even approximate this. It should be enough to half fill the dish you're using to bake the casserole.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Butter the pan you're using. It should be fairly deep, and narrow is better than too shallow. Put down a layer of noodles, add a layer of cheese. Keep doing this until the halfway point. Add the two ounce chunk, and continue layering ending with a layer of cheese.

Add milk to approximately 3/4 of the way up the side of the pan.

Bake for an hour. If you cover it, the texture will be softer. In that case, I also recommend a little less milk and uncovering it for at least the last ten minutes to get the top brown.

Variations:

My cousin uses a teaspoon of sugar sprinkled on top to brown. My grandmother used bread crumbs in the top layer. I hate bread crumbs, and I think we should get away from adding sugar to things that don't need it. I just grind a little black pepper on top. My mom used a mix of cayenne and paprika. When she remembered the paprika, it was pretty good.

1 teaspoon of mustard mixed in with the grated cheese helps keep it separated for strewing and also gives a nice flavor.

You can mix a cup of cottage cheese with the noodles and cut the grated cheese in half. This variation will also take less milk.

edited to add: In my post about slow foods, undauntra mentioned having a macaroni and cheese made with smoked gouda. I think it sounds delicious, but I would mix the smoked cheese with another cheese, preferably a sharp cheddar, in proportions of 1/4/ to 1/3 smoked and the balance unsmoked. It might also be good as half the grated cheese in the cottage cheese variation.

Comments

[tpau]

oooh... i shoudl try this...

this is what i normally sue: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/stove-top-mac-n-cheese-recipe/index.html

:)

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Alton Brown is a great source. I've seen his macaroni and cheese episode and I think both his recipes sound great.

If you do try mine, tell me how you think it compares.

[tpau]

will do. just need time :) possibly this weekend maybe

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I hate bread crumbs on macaroni and cheese. Don't know why. I love cheese. I love bread...I like cheesy bread! But bready mac and cheese? No.

Oh, and do you know Alton's got a new show? "Feasting on Waves" He's exploring food in the West Indies (tough job, right? LOL)

Sometimes I use ricotta instead of cottage, but I usually use a variation of that and the grated myself.

Now I have a craving for mac and cheese. Eek!

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't know about Alton's new show. Must TiFaux.

I don't like breadcrumbs on most things. Just not a nice texture for me, and yet, like you, I like cheese toast, and bread, and cheese, and cheese sandwiches, and ...

[disbelief11.livejournal.com]

Your recipe sounds pretty similar to my grandmother's version. Yum!

I bought a cookbook entirely devoted to mac-n-cheese. So far I've only tried a stovetop version and decided that I like the baked ones better.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

The texture is never right in the stovetop versions. The chewy, crunchy corners and the soft middle combination is what makes it macaroni and cheese for me.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

Your recipe kinda sounds similar to my own. But why no orange cheddar? Because of the food coloring dairies use?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Mostly. There are some cheeses with coloration naturally, but I don't know of any commercially produced in the US.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. My dad, whose family is from Virginia like yours, always insisted that the best macaroni and cheese could be made by just adding the cheese to the macaroni. Mom tried it once, to humor him, and of course it came out awful. Now I'm thinking, from reading your recipe, that Dad was basically right, but being a nonculinary kid, didn't notice the part about adding milk.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Since my sister did something similar once, I think you might be right.

It's simple and good. Let me know if you guys try it.

[atricilla.livejournal.com]

*printer humming* Thanks!

I've been craving comfort foods, and my mother's mac-n-cheese is right up there on that list. Your recipe isn't the same as I remember hers, but I think it has all the same ingredients & it sounds pretty easy. Hopefully I can get M to make it your way some day soon.

Now to make a post about food cravings....

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Aw, your icon needs a hug.

I hope you like it. Let me know either way.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I have never heard/seen mac & cheese made this way. My mother's recipe involved making a cheese sauce--milk, a little flour, and butter. You'd make a little paste, add the rest of the milk, and then add the cheese to melt. You could use any cheese, really, but it's funny because my mother never bought yellow cheese except for mac & cheese. I don't know why. hehe

I confess that I made my mom's recipe with Velveeta. heh I loved it back in the olden days. I was not a fan of cheese--not even on pizza or in sandwiches--but I liked Velveeta. Maybe it was because it didn't seem like real cheese, so I could forget how it was made. I think my sister always used (uses?) Velveeta as well. She also once made my kids some mostly-non-dairy mac & cheese using a hunk of soy cheese and they said it was good. I never tried that. (I say mostly non-dairy, because she didn't realize that most soy cheeses contain caseine. The vegan soy cheeses are usually not very melty.)

My vegan recipe is actually somewhat similar to my mom's and comes out tasting...well, as close as I could hope, since I don't really remember what real mac & cheese tastes like. It's close enough for me and for my kids who also don't remember real mac & cheese. My husband (who's not vegan) likes it, but he's not picky. I probably wouldn't make it to serve to non-vegan people, though sometimes guests are curious about vegan food.

My family likes mac & cheese with or without bread crumbs on top. I usually sprinkle garlic powder on top of the vegan kind. I don't know why. I love garlic. I also sprinkle a little bit of parsley on top to make it look pretty.

When I was maybe 13 or so, I was eating over a friend's house and they put tomatoes in their macaroni & cheese. I was so disgusted. I thought that was the most horrible, horrible thing. But maybe 15 or 20 years later, I remembered that and tried putting a few small pieces in one part of mine (just to try it), and I liked it, so sometimes I do that. Nobody likes it but me, really.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I'm a purist. I've eaten macaroni and cheese with tomatoes, but it's just ain't right. *G*

I can't imagine what a vegan version of this would taste like.

With me, it was the opposite. The first time I saw someone going to all the trouble of making a cheese sauce, I did a Scooby Doo "whuh?"

Cheese sauces work for me when they're the mixed cheese versions. Still, on some deep level, I just don't recognize those types as "macaroni & cheese."

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

*g* I had never seen it or heard of mac & cheese made any other way until just now. Everyone made it the way my mom did, or something very similar--at least everyone I knew who made it. I think Kraft Mac & Cheese was just becoming popular back then, IIRC, and some people ate only that or only the frozen kind. hehe (My mom would never buy either except very rarely if we begged her for a special treat.)

There are tons of recipes for various vegan not!cheeses. I have a book titled The Uncheese Cookbook, which has a lot of recipes, but most of the recipes that I use are ones that come from other cookbooks that I bought years ago. The not!cheese I make the most is pizza cheese, though we sometimes have pizza without cheese, too. I use that pizza cheese recipe in other things besides pizza--well, I did when I used to bother to cook. :-)

This is just for your viewing pleasure. :-) It's the original recipe as I found it on a website probably more than ten years ago... Actually, yeah, a lot more than ten years ago. I modified the wording slightly to make it easier for me to follow and also to make it easier me to figure out Weight Watchers points a while back when I was doing WW, but otherwise it is exactly as I found it.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Macaroni & Cheese

Recipe By :From Savannah on the Veg Web Board
Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : American Casserole
Cheeses And Cheese Sauces Pasta
Sauces Supper
Weight Watchers Notations

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2/3 cup cashews -- raw
3 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 ounces pimiento
5 tablespoons Cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups elbow macaroni

Put a pan of water on to boil to cook the macaroni. Blend the cashews in the blender with 1 cup of water until smooth--about three minutes.

Add pimientos and the rest of the water to the blender. (If all the water doesn't fit, set aside.) Blend about another 2 - 3 minutes until smooth.

Add the rest of the ingredients except the macaroni, and blend until well mixed.

Pour mixture into a sauce pan with the rest of the water. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until thick.

Cook 2 cups of macaroni in boiling water until done. Drain and put into a large-size glass baking dish or lasagna pan. Pour all of the cheese sauce on top, then mix well. Make sure you use all of the cheese sauce.

Optional: Before baking, you may sprinkle the top with seasoned bread crumbs, parsley, salt, and/or garlic powder.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 123 Calories; 5g Fat (32.2% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 221mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 1 Fat.

NOTES:

1 point for 3 ounces.

2 points for 6 ounces.

4 points for 10 - 12 ounces.

I usually double this recipe and cook it in a large lasagna pan (glass baking dish).