making it for thanksgiving. What cheeses work best?
My favorite recipe uses 8 oz each of sharp cheddar, aged gouda, and cream cheese, and 4 oz parm or romano.
Valveeta
Hooks 12 year cheddar
3 year manchego
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I used to think my mac & cheese was perfect…and then I tried Chrissy Teigen’s recipe. The shell pasta picks up the Gruyere-Swiss-American sauce and become bursts of cheesey deliciousness. The garlicky breadcrumbs provide a nice textural contrast. I would suggest cutting the salt in the breadcrumbs recipe by half because the American cheese in the sauce is plenty enough.
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A pound. Here’s the whole shebang. Raves guaranteed or drinks are on me.
Macaroni & Cheese (modified from Mitchell Davis’ Kitchen Sense)
Makes 6 to 8 servings
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 small bread heels, ground into crumbs
4 ounces parmesan, grated
8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces aged gouda, shredded
1 pound cavatappi
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
8 ounces cream cheese
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Grease a 2-quart baking dish with a 3 tablespoon slice of butter, and throw the rest of the butter in a 3 quart saucepan. Shake half the breadcrumbs around in the dish so they stick to the sides and bottom. Combine the other half of the breadcrumbs with half the parmesan and set aside.
Cook the pasta in a stockpot half-full of water for 7 minutes. Drain and return to the pot.
Over medium high heat, melt the butter in the saucepan, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the roux smells like toasted flour, about 2 minutes. Add the milk and whisk until the mixture boils and thickens, about 4 minutes. Lower the heat and whisk in the mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Add the cream cheese and stir until melted.
Pour the shredded cheese over the pasta, and pour the hot cream sauce over that. Stir until well combined. Spoon into the baking dish, sprinkle the bread crumbs and parmesan on top, and dot with the remaining tablespoon of butter. Bake for 40 minutes.
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This is my favorite by far, and I’ve made dozens.
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Thank you so much. I found this -
Btw, I looked on that other site and found some good ideas.
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I agree with the blog notes…if you’re serving it to kids, you may want to consider reducing the cayenne. Chrissy likes things pretty spicy. I reduce the amount by at least half every time I use her recipes.
I’m making the same recipe this year, but my son asked me to add bacon to it. I’ll sub out the oil and butter for bacon fat.
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roux into a bechamel
If you do the above you really can’t go wrong in my experience
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Thanks Lulu 
! I had to do some pre-Thanksgiving odd and ends around the house today and could only think of mac and cheese. Fortunately, I had all of the ingredients here and it’s going in the oven right now.
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Been rocking the modern mac n cheese that serious eats did a while back. Mainly because I’m lazy and saves a crapload of time on prep and cleanup on nothing having to make the bechamel.
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What did you wind up making?
That’s interesting. I’m not usually interested in chemistry-set cooking tricks, but being able to melt cheeses that usually don’t melt very well or at all could be useful. Do you have to buy sodium citrate online?