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#WHAT IS THE BEST CHEESE FOR MAC AND CHEESE CRACKER#
Stouffer’s, Cracker Barrel, Amy’s, they all make the same error in judgment with their frozen, oven-baked macs. That’s what baking mac and cheese is to me: It’s complicating an already perfect method for cooking pasta. In fact, you would ruin the dish and cause several Italians to troll you online (they love to do that). Take that aforementioned cacio e pepe, a spaghetti dish that has absorbed and swelled with sauce in a pan, and bake it with breadcrumbs. What makes Kraft, Velveeta, and the like all so iconically good is that they adhere to the classic Italian principles of pasta.īaked pasta doesn’t quite follow those principles. It needs to absorb liquid, flavoring, and seasoning, and then it needs to be served. And those tenets of good pasta, I would argue, should also be followed with mac and cheese. Italians, more than anybody, understand the rules of simple and understated decadence. They both produce the same sloshy, X-rated sounds. Now do the same thing with a spoon to a bowl of Velveeta Shells & Cheese. Run a spoon through a perfectly plated mound of carbonara. What’s more, these pasta dishes have the same texture as stovetop mac. A classic Roman alfredo, or al burro, is quite directly butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Those are literally the same ingredients that are in mac and cheese. It is simply pasta, cheese, pepper, and pasta water. Take cacio e pepe, a dish that originated in Rome sometime in the 1800s. The most traditional pasta dishes are comprised of some combination of butter, cheese, and pasta. Stovetop mac is inherently Italian in nature. I’m working from a place of traditional pasta principles. Baking mac and cheese only dries it out and muddles an already perfect dish.īut it’s more than just personal preference. Whether it’s achieved through milk and butter or a packet of mysterious processed cheese goo, macaroni is best when it’s naked, gooey, sloppy, and wet. The rich cohesiveness of a properly prepared Kraft or Velveeta, each shell or elbow noodle coated thick with cheese sauce, cranks the decadence up in a way that other macs aspire to, but ultimately fall short. A smooth, creamy, glossy (wet) mac is perfect as is. It needs no aid, no accoutrement, no crunch. But mac and cheese done right doesn’t need any extra help. Other variations of mac exist: baked, topped with breadcrumbs, and loaded with meats and aromatic vegetables. Hear me out: Mac and cheese should be cheesy, yes, but it should also be smooth, luxurious, and velvety. It brings me immense, perverse joy to assert that mac and cheese is best when it’s wet.