Baked Mac and Cheese

As far as I know, there are only two schools of baked Mac and Cheese: the flour school and the egg school. Each has to do with the agent that thickens the gooey sauce that the pasta is submerged in before it is baked. The basis for Mac and Cheese is melting cheese into milk to create a sauce, which by itself would be too thin to create a cohesive casserole. The first school thickens the sauce by adding flour (a roux) and the second uses eggs to make it coalesce ever so slightly. Both have their basis in traditional sauce technique – the first is essentially a béchamel with the addition of cheese (like sauce Mornay), and the second is similar to any number of sauces, such as sauce Anglaise, for which eggs, gentle heat and constant motion work in concert to slightly thicken a sauce until it has roughly the consistency of heavy cream.

I was a practitioner of the much more common roux-based version until very recently, but it never truly satisfied me. The perfect baked Mac and Cheese should be creamy and gooey in the inside and crusty on the top, but when you bake a béchamel sauce, it firms up a little and holds everything in place. This is quite useful when it’s used in a lasagne, for example, but it takes away the ooze from the middle of a dish such as this. So I recently converted, and found a recipe that blew the thing I had been making away. I don’t claim perfection here – as previously stated, there are countless ways to do this well, and Instagram seems to be constantly recommending new ones – but what I do guarantee that this will scratch every itch anyone who tries it ever had for the dish.

Yes, there is Velveeta here, perhaps the only thing truly processed in this whole collection. The first time I made this recipe was the first time I had ever cooked with it, and I was thrilled – perhaps even more than losing the béchamel, Velveeta was the missing link to greatness. If the taste of Velveeta offends you, as it does me, if ever so slightly, don’t worry – there isn’t enough to really taste it, just to give it its texture. If the idea of Velveeta offends you, get over yourself, just this once – this is a classic American dish and Velveeta is the pinnacle of American engineering. After all, it’s designed to melt, and melt wonderfully – as the name suggests, it lends this dish a smooth ooze and velvety uniformity throughout.

Pay attention to the ratios here. Too many eggs and it will be eggy – the last thing you want. The eggs should not be noticeable as eggs at all, which means also that they must be well beaten.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups Panko
• 4 TBS butter
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 box of macaroni
• 2 eggs
• 2 12 oz cans of evaporated milk
• 2 tsp powdered dry mustard
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp vinegar-based hot sauce (like Tabasco – I use Crystal)
• 16 oz shredded sharp cheddar
• 8 oz + 2 oz shredded Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese
• 8 oz finely diced Velveeta

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and but a large pot of water on to boil.

The first thing to do is to combine the cans of evaporated milk, eggs, mustard, salt, pepper, and Tabasco in a bowl and whisk together until ingredients are thoroughly combined. Again, you do not want any clumps of egg. Set aside. You must do this first so that the mixture comes to room temperature before you add it to the hot pasta – as with Pasta Carbonara, if the eggs are not brought up to temperature slowly, they could curdle and you’ll end up with scrambled eggs. The other way to avoid this is to take the eggs out of the refrigerator well in advance.

After that is finished and the pasta is cooking, grate/dice cheeses and combine so they are evenly distributed in a large bowl. Then melt the butter in a large sauté pan, add the Panko and the paprika and stir to combine. Toast for about a minute or two, stirring constantly, then turn off the heat and reserve.

Once pasta is about 2/3rds cooked, drain and return to pot. Give the evaporated milk mixture a few extra whisks and then add to pasta with half of cheese, stirring over medium heat until cheese is melted. Add remaining cheese and continue stirring until thoroughly melted.

Transfer to a large baking dish and top with toasted Panko. Sprinkle 2 oz of parmiggiano reggiano on top of the breadcrumbs. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. When it is finished and the top is nicely browned (feel free to use a convection oven or broiler for the last minute or two) remove and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serve and enjoy and try not to eat the whole damn thing in one sitting.