my macaroni cheese is rather stodgy

[SlartyBartFast]

i have only recently mastered a perfect, if a little thick, cheese sauce, however perhaps i need to change quantities or something for macaroni cheese?
i use 1 pnt milk.
2 oz flour, 2 oz butter,

and a bit of cheese.

how can i make it less stodgy?

Add more milk?

Also, put some nutmeg in. Won't help with the stodge, but worth doing.

1/2 milk 1/2 water instead of just milk lightens it up - add a bit more liquid if it's too thick.

What seasonings do you use?

um, bacon, tomato, in with the macaroni, sometimes mustard in the sauce.

so is there no set amount that anyone knows, no one else have this problem?

After I've put the cooked macaroni in the cheese sauce, I find I often need to add a bit more milk. So it usually goes - make cheese sause (seems fine), cook pasta, mix together in pan and then it seems a bit stodgy. So at this point I add some extra milk and heat up in the pan, then put it in dish, put cheese on top and put it under the grill.

Are you cooking the flour enough when you start the sauce? If you aren't then it may be absorbing more liquid once it is under the grill so the sauce is ending up thicker than you thought it would.

It's probably just that you've cooked the sauce out really well to thicken - so the starch has had time to swell up and go nice and claggy when it's baked! I use those quantities too... I usually make sure to cook out the butter and flour really well for a minute or two, stirring it well so there's no risk of flouryness, then do the gradual milk adding (helps if the milk has been warmed up for a bit), then stir till it just coats the back of the spoon like a custard and immediately take it off the heat and add the cheese. I don't ever boil it, just heat it and wait for a bit of thickness.

Sorry if that's already what you're doing! If so, you could always just add a little bit less flour, or add some more milk to thin it out.

Add a couple of whisked egg whites (put the yolks in the sauce). It's a Delia veggie recipe tho she uses fancy cheeses and I use cheddar but it is great for lifting it and making it sort of souffle-stylee without all the faff. YOu just need an electric whisk to do the egg whites.

I have stopped making cheese sauce for macaroni cheese and do it like this now

when the pasta is cooked, add some butter to it, (on the hob. low heat) then add some mascarpone/soft cheese and mix it in. Then add some grated cheeses (mix of what you like)

TA DA!

thanks for further posts - i like the sound of egg, bit like in moussaka.