Macaroni cheese

[helloxhristmas]

Please help. I'm a competent cook, if as far as to say good buy my Mac and cheese always dries out into a stodgy lump. The kids want it 'saucy', like a ready meal.

How do you do yours please?

Just make the sauce with more milk to keep it runnier

I use this recipe from the easypeasyfoodie - it's a favourite here :)

How do you make your macaroni cheese?
Why is it drying out? Do you cook the macaroni first, or is the pasta absorbing all the liquid in the sauce as it cooks?

In my experience you need to absolutely drown the macaroni in the sauce so it looks like too much. Then leave it for 10-15 and the macaroni absorbs the sauce, leaving it the right consistency. If you’re doing it in the oven, same principle. Make sure the macaroni is drowning in sauce before you bake and then leave for 10-15 to set.

Oh yeah. Pp has a good point - pre-cook the pasta then add it too the sauce.

yes, more milk in the sauce. and try using a combination of cream cheese and cheddar or other harder cheese.

There's no rule that says the pasta and sauce have to be baked together so mix together once the pasta's cooked and serve. Or make more sauce, undercook the pasta by a couple of minutes and bake for around 20 mins topped with a mix of breadcrumbs and cheese or just a sprinkling of extra cheese.

Cook the macaroni completely first then add sauce and grill rather than bake for only 15 mins or so to do the top.

more cheese than is decent, don't completely drain the pasta...some water keeps it juicy and don't leave the pasta hanging about while you make the sauce, it wants to be warm and freshly drained when you add the sauce

Also you really need to make loads, small portions are apt to be stodgy and heavier.

Once the pasta is ready I drain (badly!) , put it into a big dish, throw over some grated cheese and give it a good shake, then pour over the sauce and give it all a good shimmy, more cheese on top, plus bacon and a few breadcrumbs/dried herbs and into the oven with it.

If I have any fancy cheeses I often use them up by poking them in amongst the pasta....also do this for cauliflower cheese.

MoreCheese=MoreBetter!

It would help if you tell us how you make it and then maybe we can tell you where you might improve.

Personally, I make it just about every week, as follows:

Boil 250g macaroni and set side in sieve;
Melt about 1/4 block of butter in pot on low/medium heat and add 2 heaped dessert spoons of plain flour.
Work the flour into the butter to make a paste and allow to thicken;
Gradually add a tin of condensed milk to the roux stirring as you go then add about a cup of milk, again stirring as you go. If you get any lumps just blitz with a hand blender.
Add in 300/400g grated cheddar. DO NOT USE pre-grated stuff as it is coated in starch and messes up the sauce.
Mix in a large dollop of mustard.
Add the macaroni to the sauce, stir thoroughly and serve.

Came on for any mac n cheese tips as I cant make it at all. @TooTrueToBeGood your recipe looks good I might try it but just wondering was it definitely condensed milk or did you mean evaporated? I would imagine condensed being really sweet

@AvoidingRealHumans

Came on for any mac n cheese tips as I cant make it at all. *@TooTrueToBeGood* your recipe looks good I might try it but just wondering was it definitely condensed milk or did you mean evaporated? I would imagine condensed being really sweet

Oops, well caught. Yes, evaporated milk. I hate to think what condensed would do to it.

Just prepare loads of cheese in advance and have it ready to add directly to the drained pasta - obvs goes against the grain to add sauce to pasta rather than the other way around but it works. Include good melting cheeses such as mozzarella and Gorgonzola and taleggio as well as Parmesan and maybe even some vintage Red Leicester for colour. Might have to return to a low heat while you stir them all in.

So I cook the pasta, make the cheese sauce, mix it together and bake. I'm thinking now it needs to look more wet than say a tomato pasta sauce? More milk and more cheese. Will try tonight!

@helloxhristmas well that depends on your how you do your tomato pasta sauce! Follow a recipe like the easypeasyfoodie one linked above, and aim for a sauce consistency that you like in the pan by adding the milk gradually. It won't change too much in the oven for 10 minutes.

For me the ideal consistency is one that doesn't clump all the macaroni together once baked, just ideally about 50% clumping (but not welded) at the top and round the sides (not that I get that right very often!). And you should be able to get most of the sauce up with a fork otherwise it's too runny.

Oh, and whilst we're at it, a controversial one, but I firmly support the use of tomato ketchup with Macaroni Cheese!

Mine don’t like it baked in the oven so I literally cook pasta and stir in a home made cheese sauce.

We add ham/chorizo/other meat and mushroom too

I just sprinkle with grated cheese and put under the grill for a couple of minutes and don't bake, it shouldn't dry out then.

Ah 10 minutes might be the key, I bake it for about half an hour!!

The slow cooker is the way forward, if you have one. Best Mac and cheese I've ever tasted! I think the recipe may have been BBC good food. Seriously amazing.

I agree about the slow cooker if you have one, best I ever tasted.

I had my life's ration as a child though, as my mum observed no meat on Fridays and this was an alternative to cooking fish and having the cat get too excited.

I don't particularly like macaroni cheese but this recipe is awesome
www.nigella.com/recipes/sweet-potato-macaroni-cheese

Way more milk than you think it should have, macaroni slightly undercooked, half a teaspoon each of English mustard and Marmite added to the sauce and a mix of strong cheddar and parmesan used to make the sauce (lots of cheese). I never bother to bake mine but I might stick it under the grill for 5 minutes with some extra cheese on top.

I cheat.

I cook the macaroni then drain, then I add pre made cheese sauce and mix in and heat.

Usually add bacon lardons and posh dogs cut up from m and s that I do in a separate pan then mix through at the end.

It's quick and my DD likes it.

It's the only think I cheat on.

I was taught how to make this by an old lady who'd worked in London during the worst of World War II.
It sounds dreadful but it works and is incredibly easy. I don't know who she learned it from - perhaps her mother, who had many Polish friends. It's not posh, just basic comfort food.

Boil macaroni in plenty of water until almost done.
While this is cooking, grate lots of strong cheese. Have some flour and if you like it mustard to hand. Put a grill on to heat up.
Separately, grate some more cheese - about a big handful.

When macaroni is almost but not quite cooked to your taste, pour off all except approx 2 mugs of pasta water. Keep a bit more pasta water to one side.
Off the heat, tip in 2 tablespoons approx of flour. Stir very, very well. Cook gently - a minute or two - until the mixture begins to thicken.
Tip in the grated cheese and stir very well again.
You should end up with pasta in a thick sauce. Keep stirring, and add more reserved pasta water until you get the level of runniness in the sauce that you like. Add the mustard.

Tip the pasta in sauce into a shallow ovenproof bowl or tray. Sprinkle with the last lot of grated cheese. Grill until the cheese is melted and bubbling - just a few minutes.
Serve with tomatoes or geen salad or runner beans or broccoli or frozen peas.

Ikea had Rudolph shaped pasta last time I was in there by the tills.

I think I will make this Christmas Eve