Did the noodles in Kraft Mac & Cheese used to be ... bendier?

Cafe Society
1

My wife and I were discussing Kraft Mac & Cheese (a.k.a. Kraft Dinner) the other day, and she asked me if they’d ever used elbow macaroni, or if they’d always just used straight tubes.

My first response was: What are you talking about? They STILL use elbow macaroni.

But looking up some pictures on my phone and, later, looking at an actual box showed that she had a point. If those macaroni were elbow macaroni, they were elbows in an arm being held out mostly straight. They’re certainly nothing compared to, say, a box of Barilla elbow macaroni noodles.

But of course the Kraft Mac & Cheese logo shows a full-on elbow noodle, bent enough to double as a smile.

So I’m wondering: Has Kraft unbent the elbows in their macaroni over time? Or have they always been fairly straight, and my mental image incorrect? And if they have changed the shape … why? Easier to manufacture?

2

As far as I recall, it’s always been the straightish kind of noodles.

3

I don’t remember them ever being very curved. I started eating them in the late '70s or early '80s.

4

There have been many variations of the basic product. I seem to remember one marketed as special because it had elbow noodles. …maybe not. Reality is so slippery in the world of processed food.

5

That’s my recollection as well. I grew up on Golden Grain Macaroni & Cheese, and that one used shorter, fatter, elbow macaroni – and had better sauce than Kraft.

I asked about GG M&C in 2005, and someone bumped the thread in 2010 to say that not only was the mac’n’cheese gone, the company appeared to be gone as well.

EDIT: Here’s the box I remember. Also, Golden Grain still seems to be around (based on a google search). But I haven’t found the mac’n’cheese.

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6

I remember them as straight noodles.

7

I assumed Kraft used elbow noodles, because that’s the type they used in the big sculptures they put up in public locations throughout the country.

8

Me too. I spent many a childhood dinnertime threading four straight cheesy noodles onto the four tines of my fork before eating them.

9

Perhaps you’re thinking of the Deluxe version.

There are indeed different varieties. You can get it shaped like shells, spirals, Spongebobs… But as far as I know, the basic, original version has always been straight.

10

Moved to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

11

Stouffer’s macaroni & cheese is nearly straight too. Thats what we have at home.

12

Somewhere I saw a link to this article from the Wall Street Journal about how Kraft develops thousands of shapes of pasta (selling only some of them) in an attempt to appeal to kids. (The difficulty is making a shape that looks like the cartoon character or whatever they’re trying for, especially after being boiled, and also lets the sauce cling to it.)

13

I can remember threading the straight ones onto my fork tines in the 60’s and 70’s.

14

I thought I was the only kid who did that thing with the fork tines…

15

I did that as well. I actually edited it out of my first post 'cause I thought y’all might think I was strange. :stuck_out_tongue: Now I see I’m not alone!

16

A sculpture that looks like the actual noodles used would be remarkably phallic.

17

Definitely not alone! :smiley:

Twas my favorite childhood meal, and the fork thing got me in trouble timewise more than a few times. :slight_smile:

18

That’s how I remember it as well. The Deluxe (with the cheese sauce) are elbows, the version with the powder mix were always straight.

19

This. Exactly this. I’m 36.

20

Heck, I’m 56 and I still do it!