Mac & Cheese

Name: Mac & Cheese
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 8 oz pasta (elbow macaroni); 2 ½ cup cheese (sharp cheddar, grated); 3 tbsp butter; 3 tbsp flour; 2 ½ cup milk (warmed); 1 tsp mustard (Dijon); 1 tsp salt; ¼ tsp black pepper (ground); ⅛ tsp nutmeg (grated)

Noodles & Rice · American

9 ingredients · 30 minutes · 4 servings

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687kcal30.6g protein38g fat55.2g carbs~$1.41/ serving*

Contains gluten, dairy

Restrictions

Containsgluten · dairyIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.

Diets

VegetarianPescatarianNo porkNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:

8 oz	pasta (elbow macaroni)
2 ½ cup	cheese (sharp cheddar, grated)
3 tbsp	butter
3 tbsp	flour
2 ½ cup	milk (warmed)
1 tsp	mustard (Dijon)
1 tsp	salt
¼ tsp	black pepper (ground)
⅛ tsp	nutmeg (grated)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

¾ cup	cheese (processed American, grated, for up to a third — insurance against splitting)
¾ cup	cheese (gruyère, grated)
¾ cup	breadcrumbs (buttered, if baking)
½ tsp	hot sauce
⅛ tsp	cayenne pepper

Steps

Grate5 min
from a block, coarse holes
cheddar grated (+ gruyère, + American cheese). Grate it yourself: pre-grated cheese is coated with starch or cellulose to stop it caking, and that coating interferes with a smooth melt. Small pieces also melt before the pan has time to get hot enough to hurt them
Boil7 min
well salted, 2 minutes short of the packet, drained
- pasta
pasta, deliberately underdone. It keeps absorbing liquid from the sauce afterwards, and pasta cooked to package time here turns soft and swollen by the time it reaches the table
Saute3 min
medium-low, butter melted then flour stirred in, cooked 1-2 minutes
- butter
- flour
butter + flour cooked to a blond roux that smells of biscuits rather than raw flour. Do not let it colour — browning the roux costs thickening power and this sauce needs all of it
Whisk4 min
warm milk added a splash at a time for the first third
- milk
+ warm milk, whisked smooth between additions. Warm rather than cold: cold milk chills the roux so the starch granules clump before they can disperse, and those lumps are gelatinised outside and dry inside, which no amount of whisking fixes
Simmer5 min
low, stirred, until it coats a spoon
until the sauce thickens and a finger drawn across the back of the spoon leaves a clean line. Starch thickens over a narrow band above about 85°C — below it the sauce stays thin however long it sits, and the extra minutes also cook out the pasty taste
Temper4 min
OFF the heat, cheese in three handfuls, each melted before the next
+ cheddar + mustard + salt + pepper + nutmeg (+ hot sauce, + cayenne), stirred off the heat until smooth. This is the step that decides the dish: above roughly 65°C the casein network contracts and wrings out the butterfat, and a smooth sauce turns grainy with an oil slick in seconds. You should never see a bubble after the cheese goes in
Fold2 min
drained pasta into the sauce, off the heat
+ pasta turned through until coated, and served at once, looser than looks right — it tightens as it cools and the pasta keeps drinking. If it does break, whisk in a splash of cold milk off the heat, which drops it below the coagulation point and adds fresh protein at the same time