Best way to make macaroni and cheese?

Boil your pasta, drain, and put back in same pan. Put just enough milk in to just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Add slices of American cheese that you have torn up and stir on low. Add 1 tablespoon butter and about a ¼ to ½ cup grated cheese, anything run of the mill will do (cheddar, Swiss, mozzarella). stir to combine and eat. Not low-cal, but so worth it. If you want to be extra bad and are feeling carnivorous, add sliced hot dogs.

Her’s a short cut: mix grated cheese, milk, butter. Add UNCOOKED pasta. Bake. It will cook the pasta.

I will also add other things depending on mood: sour cream, cumin, Italian herbs, fennel, nutmeg, ground pepper,white wine, sherry, tomato sauce…

You could do what I did when I was a kid. Boil pasta (any sort) and grate cheddar cheese into it and microwave to melt. Add some pepper to taste.

Oh. I go about it a bit differently. I cook about 8oz of noodles but only for about 4 minutes and then drain. Melt about 2 Tbsp of butter, add pepper, and ¼ tsp mustard powder. Drop in 1 Tbsp flour. Mix and simmer. Add 2 cups milk, cook over low heat so it doesn’t scald. When it gets a bit thick, add four cups of shredded or cubed cheddar cheese. Cook over low heat until cheese all melts. Pour noodles into a 2 quart casserole dish, pour cheese sauce over noodles, mix and top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for about 20–30 minutes. This is twice as much cheese as the recipe calls for, but when I was a kid, my moms baked macaroni and cheese always came out white because she never used enough cheese. It drove me crazy and this is the result. I just can NOT let it go! ~
;-)

@Trillian ~ that recipe is mouthwatering!! I have made a similar one in the past, I just have trouble with the white sauce clumping. The mustard powder is surely the secret to the robust flavor

@Trillian Yum! Someone made mac and cheese for me just how like yours sounds and it gave me a whole new respect for mac and cheese and put Kraft to absolute shame. I am gonna try that, thanks!

Honest answer.
Just buy the box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and follow the directions.
It’s just that good!

Easy mac + real chedder + some cream + thyme and pepper can be quite tasty in a pinch

My favorite mac & cheese recipe, from cooksillustrated.com

It’s crucial to cook the pasta until tender—just past the “al dente” stage. In fact, overcooking is better than undercooking the pasta. Whole, low-fat, and skim milk all work well in this recipe. The recipe can be halved and baked in an 8-inch-square, broilersafe baking dish. If desired, offer celery salt or hot sauce (such as Tabasco) for sprinkling at the table.

Ingredients
Bread Crumb Topping
6 slices white sandwich bread (good-quality, about 6 ounces), torn into rough pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 6 pieces
Pasta and Cheese
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons powdered mustard
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
5 cups milk (see note)
8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese , shredded (2 cups)
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese , shredded (2 cups)
1 teaspoon table salt
Instructions

1. For the bread crumbs: Pulse bread and butter in food processor until crumbs are no larger than 1/8 inch, ten to fifteen 1-second pulses. Set aside.
2. For the pasta and cheese: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tablespoon salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander.
3. In now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour, mustard, and cayenne (if using) and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 teaspoon salt until cheeses are fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is steaming and heated through, about 6 minutes.
4. Transfer mixture to broiler-safe 9-by 13-inch baking dish and sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs. Broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, rotating pan if necessary for even browning. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

I make this recipe but with the follwing changes:

No sun dried tomatoes
No bread crumbs on top
No cayenne pepper
I use one pound of pasta because that’s a whole box and it’s just easier to use the whole darn thing. :~)
Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of very finely chopped onion when melting the butter. Let that cook or just a bit before making the white sauce.
Instead of cheddar, I use half muenster and half Velveeta.

Note that my goal was to make a mac and cheese recipe that would most closely resemble the taste of my mom’s. This does a pretty good job.

Start the water boiling for the macaroni, and when it is boiling, dump the macaroni in to cook (as long as the box says, or until al dente, whichever you prefer).

Brown about two tablespoons of flour in two tablespoons of butter. You’re making a roux, so stir all the time, and make sure it doesn’t get too brown or burn. Turn off the heat. Throw in some spices and herbs you like (I use curry, mustard, oregano, nutmeg, pepper and salt). Stir it in, and then start pouring in your milk (or cream for a really rich meal) slowly, stirring rapidly. You don’t want lumps. At first the roux will thicken really fast, so you have to stir the fastest, making sure you get everything. Don’t leave anything in the corner of the pot.

When you’ve got enough milk in so that it is thin enough to stir easily, but thick enough to give a little pressure to your spoon, you can turn the heat on again—very low.

You can grate the cheese when you have time. The macaroni may be a few minutes away from being done. Cheese is the key. I use the sharpest cheddar (2 yrs old minimum) I can find, a really nice Gruyere, and an aged Gouda. About half is cheddar and the other half split between the other two cheeses. I imagine you could use any other sharp cheese you like—a provolone, for example, or a Pecorino.

When the cheese is grated, dump it into the roux mixture, and stir until melted. Then, as soon as the macaroni are cooked and drained, dump then in, and stir until the cheese mixture covers everything.

Eat.

All those recipes are so yummy. I am sooooo hungry now.

Take your favorite recipes add green peas, thinly sliced red bell pepper and some red pepper flake.
So good and pretty.

Remember your Veggies!

cook some small Whole Wheat noodles, drain and set aside.

cut up some Broccoli, Garlic and Onion’s small.

Defrost some frozen Spinach and squeeze out extra water

grate some Carrot

grate some Mozzarella, Parmesan and some Asiago cheese

In a Saute pan start with Onion, cook until shiny then add carrot and broccoli. Cover for Five Minutes then add Spinach and Garlic and cover again for another Three Minutes.

Sprinkle Flour for Roux then a Cup of Veggie Stock and cover for a Minute, Then add Half of All the cheese- Stir, cover and Turn OFF.

Take Half the Noodles and put in Casserole pan, take Half the Mixture and Fold into the Casserole then the rest of the noodles put in the pan and Fold. Take Half of the remaining cheese and put in casserole on Top of noodles, Add the rest and even out and Cover with Foil.

Put in Oven at 375 deg for 30 minutes, then remove Foil. top with last amount of Cheese and Turn-On Broiler with pan one level down from highest and watch- takes Five minutes!

Take out, let rest Five and DIVE IN!!!

Thanks, everyone!

Boil half pound elbow noodles to al dente >10min (Pasta always cooks better when heat is reduced to 7–8 after rolling boil is reached)
Return pasta to pot used for boiling and put on low heat
4 tbs butter, toss coat
add mixture of two eggs,1 tsp hot sauce,1 tbs mustard, few grinds of black pepper, pinch of salt, and 6 oz evaporated milk(reg. milk works as well)
Add 10 oz sharp cheddar and mix until melted