I’ve hunted down a couple different recipes and tried them, and they were… okay. The main problem is that the cheese sauce seemed on the thin side, and not very rich/creamy. Much of it dribbled off the pasta and collected in the bottom of the pan.
Does anyone have any good sauce recipes for mac & cheese? I’d really like to find sauce that’s creamy enough to coat the pasta. I’m also into sharp, smokey, or otherwise really flavorful cheeses.
Thanks!
This is heavenly - I can attest! The first link is a description, the recipe is here.
I’ve made it with 2 year old cheddar and aged gruyere, and it’s amazing. It’s actually butt-easy to make, the only issue is you need either kappa or iota carageenan, which is not exactly a pantry ingredient for most people.
It relies only on the cheese itself for the flavor (ok maybe a little beer, too) - no milk, no cream, nothing else, so you get the major cheese flavor. Not at all thin, very rich, yum yum yum.
I add smoked gouda to the cheddar and gruyere. Velveeta will help thicken it as well and I’ll usually add in a few slices.
It’s probably thin because the roux isn’t dark enough or simply isn’t enough of it, compared to the cheese.
Can you explain this further? The sum total of my cooking skills are following recipes.
Not the first time I’ve shared this recipe here, but
Patti LaBelle’s Over The Rainbow Mac & Cheese
It’s absolute heaven!
What’s an example of a mac & cheese recipe you’d normally follow?
I make a cheese sauce out of a roux base, anywhere from 2-4 cups of milk (depending how much sauce I need) and a pound or so of cheese (cheap grocery store cheddar, hence the large volume. Better quality cheese needs less).
If you cook out your roux properly, your white sauce will be very thick and adding the cheese will thicken it even more. It’s simply 2-3 tablespoons of fat (butter preferably, but I have used vegetable oil and it’s worked just fine), same again of flour, cooked out until it’s bubbling and light - you do NOT want a browned roux for this - then with the milk added and gradually whisked and whisked and whisked until it gets as thick as you like. Cheese added to hot white sauce, boom you’re done.
You do NOT want a dark roux for a cheese sauce. You want a well cooked roux, but it should not be brown at all.
+1 on the roux.
Here is my favorite recipe - which uses a roux. I also like using spiral mac instead of elbow - holds the cheese well.
I ran across a recipe for Spinach Artichoke Mac & Cheese which sounds like a great idea. It was a Rachel Ray recipe though but I try not to hold that against it. Haven’t tried it yet but if anyone does, let me know if it’s as good as it sounds.