Macaroni cheese

[TheCutter]

I'm making macaroni cheese tonight for dinner and wondered if you put your Mac and cheese in the oven to bake or just do it all in the frying pan?

Thanks everyone

Always in the oven, lots of cheese on top, the melted/crispy cheese is the best bit.

I bake it if I’m doing it for the family. If I’m slumming it in my own, I can barely be bothered to dish it up out if the saucepan. 😊

No frying pan is involved in any stage of macaroni cheese, as far as I'm concerned. One saucepan to cook macaroni, one to make sauce, baking dish for the whole lot, finish under grill or in oven.

In the frying pan?!?!?

What witchcraft is that?

Boil pasta
Make roux, white sauce, add cheese
Mix pasta and cheese sauce
Top with cheese
Top with sliced tomatoes
In the over until deep golden brown on top

What frying pan?🤔

Don't forget the mustard powder!
And def no frying pan involved!

If you don't put it in the oven you won't get the chefs perks crispy bits of burnt cheese on the dish

It’s all already cooked, so if it’s plain macaroni cheese, I just grill it to melt the cheese, if I add bacon, peppers or pepperoni I put it in the oven. I’ve never made it in frying pan, but would think that would be easier and less washing up.

I assumed she meant saucepan.

Someone was posting about “concrete tiles” in their garden the other day. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks everyone! I'll follow one of the recipes with oven involvement then!

For those questioning the frying pan part, I wasn't cooked for growing up unfortunately - only at my grans and they've both passed, and so when it comes to cooking, even simple things, I'm just very clueless. So i teach myself new dishes through internet pages - and it mentioned the sauce in a frying pan.

I taught myself some very easy dishes in my 20s and just ate the same stuff all the time ( veggie pasta, lasagne, fajitas etc) but now I have my son (and one on the way), I want to make sure I'm cooking fresh Varier meals for them and so I'm doing a lot of meals I've never done before (yes simple things like Mac and cheese I know but if I've never done it before then I need to follow a recipe somewhere even if that says frying pan 😅)

So I was suppose I was just asking for the best way 🤷🏼‍♀️I'm learning!

Thanks to those who have provided good tips and extras!

I do my macaroni first, tip it into a dish then do the sauce in the same pan because I'm lazy.

I do my sauce in a frying pan too! I cook the pasta separately and then mix it all together and put it in a casserole dish and sprinkle breadcrumbs and cheese on top.

And if you add fried onions and mushrooms it's extra tasty!

I do mine in a frying pan you can put in the oven; pasta first, tip that out into the eating bowl, then sauce in the same pan, tip pasta back in, parmesan and breadcrumbs on top then into the oven, then out and a serving into the eating bowl, with added hot sauce. Less washing up innit.

Always in the oven with breadcrumbs and crispy chorizo on top!

I put florets of broccoli and/or leek in mine, saves serving veg alongside

Leeks, bacon, tomatoes a dash of English mustard is the way to go!!
I went off piste with Nadia's version with wotsists as a topping, NEVER AGAIN!!!!

I'm 50/50 about the browning-in-the-oven thing.

Yes, the crispy top is great BUT in my experience it is to the detriment of the rest of if! The pasta absorbs some of the sauce and goes flabby and the whole thing ends up a bit more homogenous and not as silky and cheesy IMO.

It might be different if you can brown it quickly under a very, very hot grill, but we only have an Aga so no proper grill.

I sometimes add some boiled cauliflower or leeks to mine to add some veg covince myself it's a healthy choice
You sound like you are doing a great job learning it all 👍

Definitely the oven!

Also putting breadcrumbs on top and some grated cheese makes a lovely crispy top.

No frying pan here! As a pp said, one pan for the cheese sauce, one for the pasta, and depending on whether I CBA, all then into a heatproof dish, breadcrumbs and extra cheese on top, whack under the grill.

I also do a cauliflower/macaroni cheese combo like that.

Definitely in the oven - I am sure I read somewhere once that it enhances the cheesiness. I put a bit of fried onion and bacon in mine, along with cheese and breadcrumbs on the top to make a super crispy crust. In my opinion its not worth having macaroni cheese without the crusty top!

I always boil my mac, make the sauce in another pan then bake for 15mins with grated cheese on top.

Really nice things to have on the side are tender stem broccoli drizzled with a bit of oil and roasted in the oven, garlic mushrooms cooked in a frying pan or vine cherry tomatoes oven roasted in a little oil