Homemade Mac n Cheese...how?

HOLsale

i love homemade mac and cheese but oddly enough i've never made it!

do you cook the pasta first or just throw the sauce and uncooked noodles throw it in the oven and hope for the best

i've got some cheese sauce packets that need using up so i thought i'd make up a sauce with those, some cream cheese, mustard powder and maybe a bit of extra mature cheddar if the sauce doesn't taste quite right

then mix in spiral pasta and some gammon i got on clearance when it's nearly finished i will add a mix of seeded batch breadcrumbs and extra mature cheddar all i'm missing is the fine details :rotfl:

thriftlady_2

Macaroni cheese (as we like to call it,no 'and' ) is made by cooking the macaroni and the cheese sauce separately then combining the two.You can then put it under the grill to brown or in the oven for half an hour.I like to add ham or bacon and peas and sweetcorn(get some veg into the kids).HTH

I'm fascinated by American cooking and have several US cookbooks,mac and cheese is v.popular over there isn't it?

I have a brilliant little book called American Cooking in England,by Delora Jones.She's an American living over here and it's a directory of the different food terms and measurements.It's available from Amazon.

Nikki

I cook the macaroni first, everytime I've tried to just bung pasta in the oven uncooked the pasta is still uncooked when it's supposed to be cooked, I always buy fresh lasagne sheets for this reason. I put wholegrain mustard in my cheese sauce(make my own sauce as I don't like packet cheese sauce)gives it a bit of extra flavour and it's not as strong as normal mustard.

arkonite_babe

Easy peasy to make mac n cheese

Right lets see................

Do you know how to make a cheese sauce from scratch?? Don't use packet mixes they are vile and a waste of money.

If not use the white sauce recipe on my Fish Pie recipe. Just add as much cheese as you like to your sauce.

Cook your macaroni first, you can cook it to your liking, aldente as pasta or soft like I do

mix cooked pasta with cheese sauce, spread in an oven dish, then when required heat in oven at 180oc until piping hot. Just before serving, sprinkle with more cheese and let it melt before serving.


Eat and enjoy

HOLsale

thriftlady wrote:

Macaroni cheese (as we like to call it,no 'and' ) is made by cooking the macaroni and the cheese sauce separately then combining the two.You can then put it under the grill to brown or in the oven for half an hour.I like to add ham or bacon and peas and sweetcorn(get some veg into the kids).HTH

I'm fascinated by American cooking and have several US cookbooks,mac and cheese is v.popular over there isn't it?

I have a brilliant little book called American Cooking in England,by Delora Jones.She's an American living over here and it's a directory of the different food terms and measurements.It's available from Amazon.

thanks for the clarification after 7 years of living here i often forget what's british and what's american anymore

you're right mac n cheese is HUGELY popular in the states, typical kid food but very few people don't like it

i think in the states though it probably has more cheese and less white sauce as a base just like lasagne in the states lasagne is lasagne noodle, red sauce, meat then riccotta or cottage cheese with the final layer of cheese being mozzerella or provalone normally no white sauce at all!

i'm just going for cheap and cheerful and a use it up thing this time but would love to learn to cook the very traditional american version

if you want any pointers on american cooking, substitutions (or translations!) etc please feel free to ask... i lived there the first 28 years of my life and have been cooking dinner since i was 10 so i think i picked up a few things along the way :rotfl:

HOLsale

Nikki wrote:

I cook the macaroni first, everytime I've tried to just bung pasta in the oven uncooked the pasta is still uncooked when it's supposed to be cooked, I always buy fresh lasagne sheets for this reason. I put wholegrain mustard in my cheese sauce(make my own sauce as I don't like packet cheese sauce)gives it a bit of extra flavour and it's not as strong as normal mustard.

see i told my dh that you cook it first and he insisted you don't cook it!

glad to know i was right again (as usual) :rotfl:

comping_cat

With our macaronni cheese, i cook the pasta, make a white sauce and then add cheese, salt and pepper, and a teaspoon of english mustard!!! Like everyone else, i then bung it in the oven with some more cheese sprinkled on top to go bubbly and brown, YUM!!!!!

thriftlady_2

HOLsale wrote:

if you want any pointers on american cooking, substitutions (or translations!) etc please feel free to ask... i lived there the first 28 years of my life and have been cooking dinner since i was 10 so i think i picked up a few things along the way :rotfl:

Thanks,Holsale,
I have lots of questions,can't remember them all at the mo,but one thing springs to mind-What is a Twinkie??? often mentioned in films.Oh,and are M&Ms the same as Smarties??

Chipps

What is a Twinkie??? often mentioned in films.

Oh,oh, oh!!!! I've always wanted to know that, too!!!!!

flea72

twinkie - isnt it like brioche, so a sweet tasting bread?

m&ms are the same as the m&ms we get here, arent they?

Flea

apple_mint

I cook the macaroni first and then add HM cheese sauce (often with all sorts of bits of cheese left in the fridge) .. I've sometimes added mustard powder as well (but only when DD2 isn't looking as she insists that she doesn't like mustard .. what she doesn't see, she doesn't know about :whistle:))

I top off my macaroni cheese with a mix of breadcrumbs and cheese and pop in the oven for 15 mins to melt and brown.

Last night I made cauliflower cheese using the same method but dry fried some sliced mushrooms to sprinkle over the cooked cauliflower before I poured over the cheese sauce and popped the breadcrumb / cheese on top. Served with peas, we had a very filling meal.