There's nothing like a good bowl of mac & cheese after a busy night of hanging out with friends, or a cold day where the wind is brisk and the trees are dancing. The warm sauce and the fatty cheese helps coat the stomach and helps create a perfect balance within the body. But you may find that your mac & cheese is nowhere near as perfect as the one that you get at restaurants or the one that your friend magically whips up.
Their creations may be impeccable compared to yours and you may be wondering how you yourself can get these results. As it turns out, the simple mac & cheese is just that; simple.
It all comes down to making the right choices when you're grocery shopping and then doing things from scratch compared to buying things that are already done for you.
For example, making your own cheese sauce is much more rewarding than buying the powder sauce at the grocery store. Here are four Tips to mastering your own mac & cheese.
Use Good Noodles That Hold a Lot of Sauce
To get the perfect mac & cheese it's all about the proportions you put in your mouth. In other words, there should be an equal amount of cheese to noodle in every spoonful you consume. If your macaroni is not capable of storing cheese inside of the pasta then you may need to find another type of noodle to use. For
For example, spaghetti is not as good as penne as the sauce can get into the core of the penne and thus give you more cheese sauce as you're eating.
Salt Your Boiling Water Well
Another tip is to salt the water you are boiling the noodles in. Salt adds flavor, which balances nicely with the creamy texture of the cheese. If you don't salt the water you're boiling the macaroni in, the pasta won't add much to the cheese and you may end up with a dish that doesn't taste like much.
Make Your Own Bechamel
While it is very convenient to just buy a powdered sauce that you simply have to whisk together with some milk, it doesn't do you any favors for your mac & cheese. Instead, make your own béchamel sauce, which is basically just a base for your cheese to be melted in. The bechamel is a sauce that consists of melted butter, flour, and milk.
What you do is melt some butter in a pan and add just enough flour to make a paste. Make sure to whisk all the time so the mixture doesn't burn. Then you slowly add milk and keep whisking so you don't have any clumps.
By adding just a little milk, your sauce will be very thick. Keep adding milk and keep whisking until you have to the consistency you want. Make sure that the mac & cheese sauce is not too watery, as you need the cheese to melt into the sauce. In addition, you don't want it to be too thick either. Continue to whisk and add milk slowly, so you are in control of the rise.
More of the good stuff
The last tip is to pick more than one type of cheese for your mac & cheese dish. When you go to the store, you may be very tempted to just reach for the cheddar and call it a day.
But don't be afraid to experiment with different kinds of cheeses, preferably something or a bit sharper.
For example, if you do go to the cheddar, go find an aged cheddar. Don't settle for just the mozzarella. Instead go for something that has a bit more of a kick, like a Gruyère. But don't over exaggerate the mixing of flavors or cheeses, as four or more cheeses can easily become too diluted and you lose the sophistication of each cheese. Two should suffice.
What are some tips that you like to incorporate to make your perfect mac & cheese?
