Baked Mac & Cheese (2 Ways)

Hey , what's up ?

Baked mac and cheese is comforting indulgent and has been reliably turning frowns upside down for centuries .

Today , I'm gonna show you how to make two delicious versions of it at home .

The first way is a custard based Southern American style to get started on that .

I'll need to sort out the cheese situation today .

I'm gonna be using three main cheeses plus an optional fourth that I'll talk about in just a second to bring a backbone of strong cheesy flavor .

I'm gonna start with some sharp cheddar .

This is just the standard issue block version that you get at the grocery store .

Southern Mac and cheese is not about artisanal cheese .

So don't use anything fancy .

Next to that .

I've got some Colby Jack cheese .

It's plain , it's mild and it melts nothing fancy here .

This is kind of a workhorse cheese .

And then lastly , I've got some yellow American .

This brings that gooeyness and stick to the roof of your mouth that we really need in a nuclear orange baked Mac Velveeta cheese would also be a good option , but it tastes a little bit too much like canned nacho cheese for me .

Oh , it's so gross .

Also , you should probably skip using pre grated cheese for this recipe because pre shreds tend to be covered in food starches or anti caking agents that make them melt .

Really weird .

Now , once all these cheeses are shredded , I'm gonna combine them into a medium bowl .

That's 2 25 g or a half pound of sharp cheddar .

2 25 of American cheese and then 2 25 Colby Jack .

Now for the fourth and still optional cheese , I'm gonna add in 100 and 25 g of grain parm .

I find adding some aged cheese flavor to this .

Mac just gives it a touch of added complexity without making it taste too fancy .

Next , I'll toss all these cheeses together and there we go .

A perfect blend of sharp creamy gooey and umami over at the stove , I've got a large pot of heavily salted water up to a ripping boil .

So I'll drop in my mac .

That'll be £1 of whatever macaroni you like best .

I think 100% semolina or durm pasta holds up best during the long bake time .

And after a quick stir , I'll let this pasta cook per package instructions or about five minutes in total while that cooks .

I'm gonna quickly bust out the thing that holds this mac together , the egg custard for that .

I'll set aside my cheese and grab a second medium bowl into that goes three large eggs .

These are gonna help make the mac more set up and give it a more luscious creamy mouth feel .

Then 100 and 25 g of sour cream and then two cans of vapor milk .

These are 12 ounces or 3 50 mils each .

And their high levels of KC and protein are essential , in my opinion , to making a more stable , less greasy mac and cheese .

Lastly , I'll add in 2 g of black pepper and 8 g of salt .

Next , I'll jump into the bowl and give everything a quick whisk to combine .

And now we have egg milk also known as custard .

Back at the stove .

It's been five minutes .

So I'll come back and check on the pasta to see how it tastes .

Five minutes should yield me a noodle that still has quite a bit of bite .

We needed al dente because these noodles are gonna soften and swell up a lot during the bake and that's spot on .

So I'll drain these over at the sink and then move them over to a large bowl so I can combine everything together .

Next , I'll drop this pasta pot back on the stove and then drop in one whole stick of butter or 100 and 15 g worth it wouldn't be southern cooking if this dish wasn't full of fake cheese , sour cream and butter would it .

And once that's melted , I'll add it into the pasta .

Then in goes all of my evaporated milk custard and then most of , but not all of my grated cheese blend .

I'll save about 10 to 15% of that to melt on top .

And once everything's in the pool , I'll grab a spatula and stir to combine , it's probably gonna look so than you think it should be at this point .

And that's totally ok .

Like I said , this pasta is gonna swell up and absorb most of this liquid , making a thick luxurious sauce .

Next , I'll pour this whole mess into a deep nine by 13 baking dish and then I'll smooth that pasta out into a nice flat layer and then I'll top it with a reserved blend of cheeses .

Don't be shy on the cheese .

Make sure that you've got this pasta mostly covered .

And once I've got this all cheesed up , I'm gonna load it into a 3 75 F oven and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes .

During that time , the eggs are gonna puff and the pasta is gonna absorb most of that evaporated milk and it's gonna take on some nice golden brown color on top .

When I pull it out , you can see we've got even melt happening on top .

Nice and we've got some fried bubbly edges in the corner , double nice .

And after 10 to 15 minutes of cool down time when I come back , you can see that this pasta has set up into a slice mass that can easily be cut into squares for serving and , oh , baby , we've got some really nice cheese melt dangling off the side .

In my opinion .

This is everything that you want in a Southern style baked mac and cheese .

It's outrageously cheesy .

Like , stop your heart levels of melted cheese .

It's gooey .

It's creamy and it's mega comforting .

It's a standalone dish in and of itself .

Or it's the perfect side for smoked meats , grilled meats , fried chicken .

You name it .

This mac is gonna be the life of that party for the next baked mac and cheese .

I'm gonna use a slightly more fancy flavorful cheese blend and use an alternative , slightly more professional method of holding things together .

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See .

Now let's talk about the cast of cheeses .

I'm using for this mac .

First up , I got some very sharp pecorino .

I'm using this because it's strong dense Peca shes is gonna punch through all that luxurious creaminess since this cheese is so dry though , it's gonna need to be very well broken down to melt properly into sauce .

So I'm gonna grade it on the feather side of my box grater .

And in total , I need 100 and 50 g worth .

Next .

I've got some aged nutty grier cheese .

I'll grade this on the medium holes of my box grater and in total , I need 250 g worth the last aged cheese that I've got here is Italian tele .

This one has a funky buttery flavor to it .

And that's thanks to this light pink washed ride during the Asian process aging , not Asian during the aging process .

This gets washed with a solution called brevibacterium linens .

And that makes the outside of the cheese smell like a fungal diaper .

Sounds rough , but it tastes super freaking good to prep this one for the sauce .

I'm gonna actually remove that rind because tele tends to have paper stuck to it and that won't melt into the sauce in total .

Only 250 g of tele if you want something less stinky here , I would say use bri or ca and bear those have more of a mellow mushroom flavor instead of straight up funkiness .

Now , once all my cheese is prepped , it's time to make it into a cheese sauce or more accurately in French cookery .

A to get started on that , I'll drop 80 g of butter into a two quart sauce pan and give it a melt .

Next in goes 60 g of all purpose flour , then a whisk and I'll get everything stirred to combine .

I'll cook this for about a minute over high heat to unify the butter and flour and remove the raw pasty flavor .

And once the roux is just starting to turn golden like this , I'll add in 1200 grams or about five cups of whole milk .

And I'll stir that into the root from here .

I'll bring this up to a simmer and once this starts to thicken , make sure to stir it constantly because it will scorch flour and milk together can be quite sticky .

And burning will happen a lot easier than you'd think .

Next .

The heat goes down to low so that I can add in my cheeses .

First in is the most aged .

That's the pecorino .

I find I get the creamiest least grainy result when I work from oldest to youngest .

Next in goes grier .

Stir that in and then in goes my chopped , I'll jump in and stir that again .

And since this cheese is quite chunky , it's gonna take at least 2 to 3 minutes for it to melt evenly .

Once the tale is all melted in , this sauce is gonna be thickened and very cheesy looking .

But at this point , it's not as creamy or luxurious as it should be and has just a little bit of graininess to it .

The cure for that is to add in 225 g of mascarpone cheese .

This is essentially Italian cream cheese and it's gonna help make this sauce looser lighter and bring some bright cultured milk flavor .

Making a more with purely aged cheeses tends to be a little bit grainy .

Adding in some fresh cheese like this really helps bring a smoother body to the whole thing .

And once that's whisked in , I'll move it over to my cutting board to finish in .

Goes 2 g of black pepper , 5 g of salt and then a few rips of nutmeg , the warmth that this brings really helps round the sharp edges on this sauce and it compliments the nutty grier famously .

A quick whisk to get all that combined .

And there we go , a velvety creamy Marna sauce that's fit for a king to stop a skin from forming while I cook the pasta , I'll pop a lid on it then head over to the stove and cook some pasta .

That'll be £1 of mac thrown into some salty water .

I'll cook it for five minutes at that point , I'll come back and taste it .

It's al dente .

So I'll drain it off .

Once it's cooked , I'll dump it into a large bowl and then in goes all of my .

Oh , look how silky that is .

Next .

I'll stir to combine and there we go .

We've got noodles swimming in a luxurious sauce .

This looks super different from round one where things were just sitting in cheese milk .

Next , I'll pour this into a deep nine by 13 .

It just like before and from there , I'll top it with grated grier and grated pecorino cheese .

I always like having a roof of some sort of cheese right on top to catch some browning and bring a rounder , darker flavor along with some added texture .

A quick bird's eye view to see how this looks pre bake .

It's looking good .

So I'll load it into a 3 75 F oven to bake it for 35 to 40 minutes .

One more quick .

Look at the time lapse .

That looks great .

And once this Mac is looking bubbly and lightly golden brown .

It's time to pull it out and it looks gorgeous after 15 minutes of rest time , when I pull out a piece you can see again , we've got a set up block of pasta held together by a beautiful melty sauce .

You guys , this version has all of the comfort and pleasure of the first one with just a little bit more R rated flavors .

It's funky sheep , creamy and deeply nutty all at the same time .

One second , it tastes like pepe and the next , it's like Swiss fondue .

Whether you go with Nuclear Orange Southern style or the more sophisticated funky version , you're gonna be stoked .

I hope you try this recipe soon .

Let's eat this thing .

And if you want some more mac and cheese content , I will link to my stove .

Top mac and cheese on the screen right now .