Making real Mac and cheese for the first time for Thanksgiving. Give me your recipe

Make this one. Trust. LINK

Omit the topping. I do a fried shallot and breadcrumb topping but the underlying Mac n cheese is golden.

I have baked and made on the stove top. IMO, stove top is better.

For either version - I use an assortment of cheeses: yellow & white cheddar, gouda, parm. Honestly whatever you want. Melt cheeses down with butter and milk (I don't use flour to ticken) basically making a cream sauce. Mixed in aldente elbow pasta. For stove top I do not use a topping.

If you want to bake - follow the same recipe - but put in baking dish after it's mixed - add a topping of your choosing (crackers, bacon, etc) then bake for about 10 minutes.

I find that the baked version dries out easier.

Made this recipe with 5 lbs of mac and quadrupled the cheese. If done normally with less mac it is almost excessively cheesy. That's a taste preference though. I don't mind it but I wanted to add more mac since I needed to bake for 3 different events coming up.

Apologies for how unsanitary the photo might look. I had to pour out the massive cheese mixture and we ran out of countertop space to do this effectively.

For cheese, I went with shredded Costco brand cheese mixed: half mozzarella, half Mexican cheese mix (Monterey Jack, Medium Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla, Asadero).

I've had Gruyere based mac and cheese before and like it, which is what this recipe will call for. I have also subbed whole milk for just straight up half and half. Just need to watch the stovetop when melting the cheese.

Photo was taken before placing food into the oven:
LINK

quote:

---

1 lb. dried elbow pasta
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 1/2 cups half and half
4 cups shredded medium cheddar cheese divided (measured after shredding)
2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese divided (measured after shredding)
1/2 Tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika smoked

Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease a 3 qt baking dish (9x13"). Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When boiling, add dried pasta and cook 1 minute less than the package directs for al dente. Drain and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil to keep from sticking.
While water is coming up to a boil, shred cheeses and toss together to mix, then divide into three piles. Approximately 3 cups for the sauce, 1 1/2 cups for the inner layer, and 1 1/2 cups for the topping.
Melt butter in a large saucepan over MED heat. Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine. Mixture will look like very wet sand. Cook for approximately 1 minute, whisking often. Slowly pour in about 2 cups or so of the half and half, while whisking constantly, until smooth. Slowly pour in the remaining half and half and the whole milk, while whisking constantly, until combined and smooth.
Continue to heat over MED heat, whisking very often, until thickened to a very thick consistency. It should almost be the consistency of a semi thinned out condensed soup.
Remove from the heat and stir in spices and 1 1/2 cups of the cheeses, stirring to melt and combine. Stir in another 1 1/2 cups of cheese, and stir until completely melted and smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, combine drained pasta with cheese sauce, stirring to combine fully. Pour half of the pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheeses, then top that with the remaining pasta mixture.
Sprinkle the top with the last 1 1/2 cups of cheese and bake for 15 minutes, until cheesy is bubbly and lightly golden brown.

---

I put this write-up together for my kids since they kept asking for the recipe. It's a family tradition.

INGREDIENTS
4 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Flour
3 Cups heavy cream
3 cups whole milk
4 oz. white cheddar cheese, grated
3/4 lb. white American cheese, torn into strips or grated
1 Tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
Splash of hot sauce (optional)
1 Lb. Elbow macaroni

DIRECTIONS
1. Fill a large pot with water, place on a stove, and turn the heat to high. It will be used to cook the pasta later.
2. Make a very light roux over medium heat with the flour and butter. It should only take two minutes.
3. Into the roux, add the whole milk, a little at a time, while stirring continuously until there are no lumps of roux remaining.
4. Pour in the heavy cream and bring to a boil over medium heat. If you turn up the heat to speed up the process, there is a risk that the milk will burn. Stay patient, this step may take a while.
5. After the milk mixture boils for two or three minutes, turn off the heat and let the pan cool for 3-5 minutes.
6. Drop the pasta into the boiling water. This task is done now to try to have the pasta cooked as soon as the sauce is finished. When in doubt, finish the sauce first. The pasta should be hot when added to the sauce.
7. Add the cheddar cheese to the roux and milk mixture a little at a time while stirring. Allow the cheese to melt fully before adding the next bit. Continue until all of the cheddar cheese is melted into the sauce.
8. After the cheddar cheese is fully incorporated, add the American cheese into the sauce a little at a time while stirring until all is melted and fully incorporated into the sauce.
9. Stir the Dijon mustard and the hot sauce into the cheese sauce. The cheese sauce is complete.
10. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it well and fold it into the cheese sauce. Initially, the mixture will seem too wet but as the hot pasta cools, it will absorb much of the excess sauce. The rest of the sauce will thicken as it cools.

LINK /

I make this every potluck, get together and sometimes just cause. Everybody, everytime says it’s the best Mac and cheese they’ve ever had. Even was “invited to the bbq” after I cooked this one time. Super easy too. I usually add a little bit more cheese than it calls for.

Hands on: 10 minutes

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 10

1 (16-ounce) package rigatoni

Salt

1 quart heavy cream

1/2 pound shredded cheddar, divided

1/2 pound shredded Monterey Jack, divided

1/4 pound shredded Parmesan, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Prepare pasta according to package directions. The cooking water should be salted to the point where it tastes like sea water. Cook the pasta until just done. Drain cooked pasta and do not rinse.

Immediately put in large mixing bowl. Add cream, 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup Monterey Jack and 1/2 cup Parmesan to pasta and toss together. Pour into prepared baking dish.

In a small bowl, toss remaining cheddar and Monterey Jack together and sprinkle on top of pasta. Top with remaining Parmesan. Dish may be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated up to 2 days ahead.

When ready to serve, bake 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and top is lightly browned.

Per serving: 720 calories (percent of calories from fat, 66), 23 grams protein, 37 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 53 grams fat (33 grams saturated), 183 milligrams cholesterol, 494 milligrams sodium.

quote:

---

Making real Mac and cheese for the first time for Thanksgiving. Give me your recipe

---

You don’t experiment on Thanksgiving.

You already have a ton of recipes. But I use bucatini instead of elbow macaroni and it comes out great.

I start with bacon and render it down. Remove and make sort of a bechamel with heavy cream, whole milk and chicken stock. Use the stock to cut the richness. Add parmesan, sharp cheddar and fontina cheeses. Add cheeses to bechamel, top with bread crumbs and a little more parmesan. Bake till the top is golden brown.

Patti LaBelle’s Macaroni and cheese recipe is hard to beat. Patti LaBelle’s Mac and cheese recipe

deep south dish