Secret Ingredient For The BEST Mac and Cheese?
 

Well, the Millennials have discovered Mac and Cheese and now I'm reading all of their takes on this classic dish. There's tons of recipes online claiming to be the "BEST." Sigh...it's overwhelming! I just made a batch with my own recipe and it's in the oven baking right now. I thought I'd ask everyone what their "secret ingredient" is for their family recipe. Here are a couple of mine:

Use Extra sharp cheddar cheese.
Swap out half the regular milk for buttermilk
Make the dish very saucy, so that the pasta doesn't get dry after baking.
Add a dash of hot sauce to the white sauce.
Make a crunchy topping with Panko dotted with butter.

BTW...in my family it's called "Matchy Cheese" because that's how my 3 year old said it. At 42, he still says it that way. :)

We were not really a Mac & Cheese family -- in general, most homemade mac & cheese has been sadly lacking for me, a pasty mess and not much cheese. But I still groove on artificially orange Kraft. My secret is if I have some cream cheese left over in the fridge, I'll throw some of that into the Kraft. And peas... I like frozen (yeah, I cook them in the boiling water) green peas in my mac.

I have started getting mac & cheese as sides at BBQ restaurants but am more often going to go for cornbread and coleslaw as sides.

I have to agree with Iceblossom. I too, am a fan of the original Kraft mac and cheese in the box. It was something that I never had growing up, in fact any noodles we had were either in soup or served with a cream gravy (which is absolutely delicious if one starts with the fat left from cooking sausages). As a Mom, I made a lot of pasta with various sauces but never mac and cheese. Just seemed like way more trouble than opening one (or two) of those blue boxes.

Secrets--add halved cherry tomatoes, or a dash of hot sauce, and ketchup is always a necessity of course!

Just made some yesterday. I heard to add some sour cream, so I tried that. I always add a green vegetable and extra "real" cheese to the box mix. I don't buy them but I take them home from the food shelf where I volunteer, when they are a little past the date we can hand them out. I also added some ham, and some sauteed onions/garlic.

My stepmother used to make the best baked mac & cheese, she would put in a whole stick of Cracker Barrel cheese, grated. It's so easy to make from scratch.

Daughter in law makes it in the Instant Pot. I don't know what recipe she uses but I think there are several kinds of cheese. It is creamy rich and reheats beautifully

I think it's the quality of the cheese that makes the difference. I make a roux then add shredded cheeses, always including a sharp cheddar. A variety adds more depth of flavour. Baking with a buttered crumb top makes an extra layer of deliciousness, too.

A good melting cheese is key for the base and then a sharp cheddar cheese to add the cheese flavor along with half and half. I've made the box kind, all different brands of it, but kids could tell the difference and didn't eat much of it. I have more cheese than macaroni. Costco has a very good already made mac and cheese that I buy for potlucks. It has several different cheeses in it.

Ha-Ha-Ha, Matchy cheese. In my family it's "Macky Cheese". Coined by a grandchild of course. No special ingredients. Plain and simple, straight up with a BIG spoon. ;) Homemade is the best, not the blue box stuff.

Most of my kids friends never had homemade mac and cheese. Always the box kind. I remember my daughter at age nine asked if I could make my mac and cheese more orange color so her friend would know what it was. LOL One friend told me that he didn't know mac and cheese could be made with real cheese and would I tell his mom that.

My DD makes boxed variety all the time. She adds extra Velveeta and sun dried tomatoes.

I make smoked Gouda mac and cheese with bacon bits.

Ohhhh.....yummm!

Funny....younger generation has discovered mac and cheese! What a memory jogger! Times were really tough in the early 80's when the kids were young. Luckily they both loved "yellow noodles"! My DH's brother worked at a grocery store, and often would get the blue boxes for next to nothing, or free if they were out of date. I felt guilty feeding them that everyday, but they really liked it, and by doing that we were able to stretch those food dollars. Today I still make it, but add additional cheese, milk/buttermilk, butter what ever is handy.

Early years of marriage and young kids were lean years. I had an elderly neighbor that got commodities and the cheese was the best cheese. She didn't like cheese so gave me all of it every month. I made lots of mac and cheese, cheese toast, and cheese pizza. I think that is why we like homemade mac and cheese. The cheese was that good.

My oldest son (29) makes the best mac & cheese I have ever had. I very rarely eat M&C, because I'm lactose intolerant and don't eat grain products anymore. But I'll have a couple of bites of his because it's so tasty. I finally asked him how he makes it, what he puts into it. He said "I put all the red spices in the cupboard in it." 🤣🤣🤣

Bologna
 

My grandchildren ask for Mac & cheese & bolony. They actually wanted beefaroni. I fried off the ground beef, added the cheese from the box, a jar of spaghetti sauce, & the pasta. They love it & ask for it every time they're at my house. They don't want just the Mac & cheese anymore. Now my husband & I prefer the real stuff. Real cheese & baked. So yummy!

we used to call it "Smacks and Knees." When I was young and in college and working (til 9PM) I could eat an entire box by myself when I got home. Now one box makes 3 meals for me.

My Mom made awesome mac and cheese. She topped it with some Romano or Parmesan. I love any kind of mac and cheese. If I were on death row eating my last meal it would be any kind of pasta with good red sauce and mac and cheese lol
At that point carbs wouldn't matter. :D

No secret or fancy ingredients here. Not from a box, no processed cheese food.

2 c elbows (my preference is Barilla, they are twisty elbows)
2 T flour
1/4 c flour
2 c milk (usually 2% as that is what I have on hand for my coffee)
2 c shredded white sharp cheddar (real cheddar, in a block - no fillers or anti-caking agents as in the pre-shredded pack)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a casserole dish.

Cook elbows as directed on box. Take out a minute or 2 earlier than suggested time. Drain.

While cooking elbows, melt butter in large saucepan (I think mine is 3 qt). When melted, add flour and stir for a few minutes.

Add milk and whisk in. Season with pepper and salt (keep in mind that cheese is already salty, so you shouldn't use too much salt). Some use white pepper to avoid the black specs, but I don't bother. DH does not like a lot of pepper, so lI really only use a half dozen or so grinds.

Continue whisking until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat.

Stir in shredded cheddar, then cooked pasta (this is why I use a fairly large saucepan - that way, only one cheesy, messy pan to clean up).

Pour into prepped casserole. Bake for 30 minutes.

This can easily be scaled up, or down, as needed. If I use 3 c pasta, I bake in a 9 x 11 glass pan. If I use 4 c, I go to a 13 x 9.

Sometimes I bake mine with a topping but really can't tell any difference in the creamingness. I use melting cheese, sharp cheddar usually Cabot white cheddar as it is extremely sharp, half and half milk. More sauce than pasta. Sometimes I add a tomato sauce and cream cheese to the cheese sauce for a different taste.

aaaah!!
Combining your Italian and Dairy heritage, for surely the best of the best!! :)

Home Ec was pretty useless when I was in Jr. HS, but one thing I did learn was how to make a white sauce. It has been useful through the years. How to make tailor tacks, not so useful.

You have me giggling thinking of those nasty tailor tacks! :)
Mine go back to a 4-H memory.
When we did them in Home Ec, I think my my brain went, oh well, here we go again!

TBH I was bored in Home Ec, as they didn't teach anything new that I had not learned in 4-H or at home with my Mom. Dropped it after the mandatory one year, because of that.

I went to Catholic schools and we didn't have Home Ec! Seems like we spent an awful lot of time in church. Geeeezzzzzzzz

The best M & C recipe I have found is Trish Yearwood's......crock pot... full of yummy Ingredients.
Family appoints me for the dish for all gatherings. Look up her recipe, she has a you tube video.

Care to share the recipe?
I'm always game for a new Best Ever ... especially when it is in the crockpot!
Thanks!

The Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese recipe I use can be found online at Joyous Apron. The small(tiny) bacon bits are in the smoked gouda cheese that I use, there are versions without the bacon bits. Hope you try it and enjoy! Jo

We also had to learn how to make white sauce - which has become one of the more useful things that I learned.

(Probably sometime between 1955 and 1957)

Trish Yearwoods recipe:
https://spicysouthernkitchen.com/tri...ac-and-cheese/

I use a little less milk and add whopping cream.
I also cook my macaroni before putting in crock pot.

Enjoy

I also like to add a little bit of prepared mustard to my cheese sauce.

doesn't it come out too soft? I hate when you eat M&C in a restaurant and the noodle are so overcooked they are mush.

Thanks Lady Diana, for posting the link!
An interesting twist ... have never seen eggs in a mac and cheese recipe!

ewwwwwwww mushy mac and cheese is tres horrible!
I totally cringe whenever I goof on that, so I try to keep it al dente.

Al'dente or soft, you're choice. You can add partially cooked macaroni to the crock pot....strictly you and your families' choice.
Trisha's recipe is eally good.

Sounds yummy, but when I use the crockpot for a meal, I don’t want to have to use another pot to cook something separately 🤪. I might try these ingredients by cooking the macaroni, and then placing all the other ingredients in the same pot, and bake it for an hour or until done. 😀

ThimbleBug ... Then, why not try it the way the recipe has it, with the macaroni uncooked??

That's exactly why I like the crock pot ... one and done ... with almost no dishes to wash!
Then it lets me go on and do something else until the meal is ready.

Didn’t notice the notes at end of recipe but see them now, thanks.

Sorry ... I forgot that the recipe has it a bit confusing. I think this is one of those, try it and see how it works for yourself type of recipes. I'll probably do a trial run of a 1/2 batch with au naturel (aka uncooked mac) in my small crock pot first. Then decide where to go from there.

Stewed tomatoes
 

A lot of people in this area put stewed tomatoes on top after it's on their plate. Not something my family ever did. I don't even like stewed tomatoes. Ewww!