Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Secret Ingredient to Mac'n'cheese

So, my usual method for making home-made mac'n'cheese is to not measure anything (just like my grandma taught me). After the noodles are cooked I just add in butter, flour, milk, cheese, and sometimes *gasp* green vegetables (tonight it was spinach, I totally did not go for anything vegetable wise in my mac'n'cheese until my sophomore year of college), and stir until all the cheese is melted. At any rate, it usually turns out pretty good.

My Handsome was making the mac'n'cheese tonight and wanted more exact measurements. So I got out the cookbook, but the two recipes were for baked mac'n'cheese (people make baked mac'n'cheese for stuff other than potlucks?). But, both recipes had nutmeg in them. So I ended up teaching Handsome how to make mac'n'cheese my way and just added a couple of dashes of nutmeg at the end. It was delicious! It added just a hint of sweetness to the cheese sauce, and made the flavor more interesting and complex. Definitely doing it again.

By the way, the type of cheese we used tonight was a colby and monterrey jack blend, although the recipes in the cookbook used cheddar and parmesan.

6 comments:

Elizabeth-W said...

I love nutmeg and put it in mac and cheese, too. I also add it to ricotta when making lasagne.

kaylee said...

Ooh, that sounds good too.

Johnna said...

Lemme get this right--you cook noodle and then sprinkle butter, flour, milk and cheese on top? You don't have to combine or melt together the butter with flour, milk, and cheese before it goes on the noodles?

m_and_m said...

Once I found this recipe, I have never done a white sauce again:

Add one can evaporated milk (I have used nonfat and it worked, but the other is cheaper, of course) and about 2 cups of cheese (I used a shredded mix -- but truth be told, I never measure); stir unto creamy.

kaylee said...

Johnna, yes, I do it all in the same pot (less dishes!). Stir in the butter first until it's melted. Add flour and milk at the same time. Then stir in the cheese until it's melted. Sometimes I need to add more milk afterward. If the cheese is shredded, I usually don't even have to turn on the stove after the noodles are cooked.

m_and_m said...

Johnna, it's essentially making a white sauce, but she mixes the milk and flour so it pours in -- right?