Good Macaroni & Cheese recipes?

Well I like macaroni & cheese, mostly brought up on the "box/kit" variety. I was watching the Food Channel the other day and there was some restaurant that had macaroni & cheese as one of their "signature dishes". All the customers raved over it.

I've never run across any "grand" macaroni & cheese recipes - they are all about the same to me. I do like the kind that comes in the box with the powdered cheese (wonder what that stuff "really is"? ) and the kind that has the cheese in the can (again - have to wonder what that stuff "really is"!).

Anyone have any really good mac & cheese recipes or all they all basically the same? We made some "homemade" mac & cheese the other night, except I cut up some reindeer sausage (yep, Santa's gonna be lookin' for Rudolph!) in it and it was pretty tasty!

ok get ya noodles cookem as normal..then get cheedar chease sharp chedar melt it in some milk. then stir it in noodles then put in a dish then add sasla and tuna fish thwe albacore kind then put it in oven type dish and bake it all.

This one is called Deb's delight and I learned it back at scout camp. It's a quick and easy casserol. Baking optional. My kids loce it.

1 box macoroni and cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can sweet peas drained
1 can tuna drained

Make macoroni and cheese as normal. Add the other ingredients. Mix well. Heat on stovetop or bake in oven if desired.

Mutie

i plan to watch this thread closely--we have been searching for a while!

FYI: while in Vegas (the Mirage) last year, we had the best mac & cheese ever.
i think it was at the Caribe' Cafe.

i need to see if i can get their recipe, because it was INCREDIBLE! huge serving too.

Bob

Great Baked Recipe:

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
Topping:
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.
Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.
Remember to save leftovers for fried Macaroni and Cheese.


Great "Stove Top" Recipe

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

Check out Food Network webpage or any of the other web food/recipe sites like Food and Wine webpage or Epicurean webpage or America's Test Kitchen webpage

There is a pretty tasty recipe for mac-n-cheese in "Joy of Cooking", it does not reheat too well though.

Once you make homemade, it's pretty hard to go back to the box stuff!! It really isn't all that hard to make good food either.

Maier's recipe looks exactly like the recipe I saw in "Good Eats". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Right down to the 'panko bread crumbs'. But it IS a good recipe - the 'hot' ingredients (mustard in the stovetop, onion and paprika in the baked) make all the difference.

[ QUOTE ]
Haesslich said:
Maier's recipe looks exactly like the recipe I saw in "Good Eats". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Right down to the 'panko bread crumbs'. But it IS a good recipe - the 'hot' ingredients (mustard in the stovetop, onion and paprika in the baked) make all the difference.

[/ QUOTE ]

Alton Brown is the man! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Eric Maier said:
Alton Brown is the man! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

True...but he's NO Rachael Ray !! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Banshee said:
[ QUOTE ]
Eric Maier said:
Alton Brown is the man! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

True...but he's NO Rachael Ray !! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

No argument here.

I use the recipe on the side of the Skinner box, and my husband always raves about it.

1-3/4 cups (7 ounces) SKINNER elbows, uncooked
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
2-1/2 cups milk
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease a 2 quart casserole dish. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse. Pour pasta into casserole. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper and paprika; cook 1 minute. Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Add cheese; stir until cheese is melted. Pour sauce over pasta. Top with bread crumbs or crumbled Ritz crackers. Bake 30 minutes or longer until hot and bubbly (often takes 45 minutes).

Heat some chopped up ring bolona or summer sausage (not the pre-sliced kind) and some peas or diced green peppers. Mix in with the macaroni when you add the milk and cheese powder.

Gaaaahhh....
(Homer Simpson drool)

I still like the box macaroni with the dry cheese powder over the fresh kind. I'm a bit weird that way /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Wow, that sounds darn good to me! Like many people there was a time I lived on the Kraft or sometimes cheaper store brand macaroni and cheese. I still do the Kraft once in a blue moon but just don't add as much butter as the box calls out for.

[ QUOTE ]
flashlight_widow said:
I use the recipe on the side of the Skinner box, and my husband always raves about it.

1-3/4 cups (7 ounces) SKINNER elbows, uncooked
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
2-1/2 cups milk
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease a 2 quart casserole dish. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse. Pour pasta into casserole. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper and paprika; cook 1 minute. Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Add cheese; stir until cheese is melted. Pour sauce over pasta. Top with bread crumbs or crumbled Ritz crackers. Bake 30 minutes or longer until hot and bubbly (often takes 45 minutes).

[/ QUOTE ]

I had a young woman working for me once (years past), who had gone through a divorce and was going through bankruptcy. She had two young boys and she was just the nicest person, easy to talk to, get along with...(her hubby was caught fooling around - and she said "no way")...anyway...

I found out she and her two boys had been living on M&C for a couple months.
I wish I had known sooner as I would certainly have helped her out!

I've been blessed to have never been in that situation, but it could happen! Being an "informed consumer", I can feed my family fairly well on a wallet that's "not that fat" (too many $$ going to flashlights - just kidding!). I look at the price of steaks $6-$10+ a lb. One "doesn't need" steak - ground hamburger will do if you desire red meat. I've found "chuck-eye" steaks (very close to "rib-eye" in my mouth for $1.80 a lb. Lately we've been eating pork shoulder steaks, marinated & grilled, at only $1 a lb. in the family pack. Stews, soups, tuna casserole/salads etc...one doesn't need to go broke feeding the family if they know how to shop.

Ok...enough preaching - I'm certainly not a nutritionist and have never played one on TV, (but I have stayed at the Holiday Inn on occasions - I'm just looking for a GREAT recipe! BTW - I've tried any here yet, but will this weekend...now just how much macaroni & cheese can I eat over the weekend? I'll probably try one of Eric's first.

Prepare Kraft type M&C using twice (2) times the amount of water. Drain throughly saving water. Mix elbow mac with your dogs favorite dry food as a treat. Use starch rich drained water to thicken any gravy of your choice. Leave yellow powder exposed as mouse poison.

Leadfoot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

Don't get me started on Spam

Leadfoot

Roast some garlic and sautee some hot or sweet Italian sausage with some salt, pepper and basil, then drain the sausage and add the roasted garlic and the sausage to Kraft Sharp Cheddar macaroni.

Take one of the two beers that you have put into the freezer before you started cooking and pour it into one of the frosted glasses you had in there too.

Sprinkle some parsley over the mac and sausage, decide whether or not you want to share and (maybe) call your girlfriend over...... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

Mac and Cheese anyone

hi guys, i have a question for you guys, i love mac and cheese, i try to make my own but they never taste the same as the ones you buy in a packet.
My question is, anyone has any hints or recipes to share?
thanks guys
Des

Re: Mac and Cheese anyone

I'm a single, lazy, couch potato and tend to make the box stuff. But it doesn't compare to homemade. Here's how my Mom taught me:

Boil the macaroni with a little salt in the water
After draining and rinsing, put it back on the stove on low heat
Add american cheese slices one at a time to melt them
While adding cheese, add small amounts of milk for desired consistency
Use a little salt and pepper near the end while adding the last few cheese slices
Serve with slices of breaded butter and plenty of milk, salt and pepper further to individual tastes

Sorry, no measurements, it's all based on appearance and taste.