Southern-Style Mac 'n' Cheese (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to use evaporated milk or regular milk in mac and cheese? ›

That higher concentration of milk proteins means evaporated milk is more stable, so it's less likely to “break” or curdle. Evaporated milk also usually contains stabilizers, such as carrageenan, which help keep your mac's sauce super smooth and silky.

Southern macaroni and cheese is often made with a blend of milk, butter, salt and cheddar cheese, while black folks macaroni and cheese is typically made with a combination of sharp cheddar, American, mozzarella, Colby Jack, and cream cheese.

Butter and flour: The combination of butter and flour thickens our creamy cheese sauce. You'll cook them together on the stove and then add the milk. The mixture thickens, and you can add your cheese. Easy!

We'll need to make a roux (pronounced “roo”) to make the cheese sauce. It's a mixture of equal parts flour and butter (equal in weight, not volume). The roux will help thicken our milk and make our sauce creamy.

Can you put too much cheese in mac and cheese? Yes, adding more cheese than a recipe calls for will not improve the dish. Too much cheese will result in a dish that is heavy and greasy.

Take boxed mac and cheese to the next level by experimenting with different combination of add-ins. Adding cold butter to the sauce and baking the mac in the oven helps with both texture and flavor. Incorporating things like real cheese, bacon, or leftover veggies can turn boxed mac and cheese into a full meal.

James Hemings: The Enslaved Chef of Thomas Jefferson Who Created Mac and Cheese.

What is Velveeta? Since 2002, Velveeta has been labeled as a "pasteurized prepared cheese product." What does that even mean? Because of the ingredients and the way it is prepared, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider it real cheese.

How to make Gordon Ramsay mac and cheese? ›

In fact, you can even go all-out and make a super-deluxe mac and cheese using half-and-half or cream, if you dare. If you must use a low-fat milk, you should probably try to boost the fat content in some other way; Chef's Notes suggests mixing 2% milk with whipping cream in a 3:1 ratio.

For a creamy taste without the cream, try evaporated (canned) milk! Evaporated milk is made by removing water from fresh milk and then heating it. Heating the milk gives it the creamy, slightly cooked taste and darker colour. When mixed with an equal amount of water, it can be substituted for fresh milk in recipes.

In terms of nutritional value, evaporated milk has a higher nutrient concentration than fresh cow's milk and, therefore, more calories. It has over twice as many grams of carbohydrates, protein, and fat – except for the reduced fat and fat-free varieties – and higher mineral content.

Those starch molecules thicken the sauce, while the concentrated milk proteins from the evaporated milk add that signature dairy flavor, without all the water you'd get from cream or regular milk. Translation? Smooth, shiny, perfectly emulsified cheese that doesn't clump, taste floury, or break into greasy pools.