Wanted: your best Mac and Cheese recipe!

This is a really tough call. My son's idea of "mac and cheese" is to cook some noodles, grate cheese over it, and microwave it just enough for the cheese to melt.  I admit, I'm looking for better than that.

Another friend has both a stove-top and a baked recipe. One is very quick, but the other tastes better.

But there are a *lot* of permies members and I thought you all probably have an interesting take on this old favorite, so why not ask all of you to share your secrets for the best Mac and Cheese. Some box from the grocery store need not apply. (Which I admit are not allowed in my kitchen.)

I'm not really a fan of Mac and Cheese, but people in my family sometimes want it and I'm the primary cook, so I occasionally make it as an act of love. I cook some pasta -- macaroni is fine, but any small chunky noodle is also fine, in a pot of salted water. While that's cooking, I make a mornay in a dutch oven by browning flour in butter and mixing in cream and milk and then mixing in cheese (cheddar, gruyere, bleu, or whatever) once that's incorporated. When they're both done, I drain the pasta and add it to the mornay, stir it up, and put it in the hot oven. After 10-30 minutes, I take the lid off, top it with cheese and panko (or crumbs of whatever bread we have or crushed crackers or fried onions or skip this) and bake it another five minutes or something until the top starts to brown.

Sometimes I add veggies when combining the pasta and mornay -- frozen peas or small florets of broccoli/mustard/sea kale or just whatever sounds good.

(I think my preferred dish that fills the same niche is a potato gratin.)

I haven't made it in years, because John isn't a fan, and all our kids are long gone, in other states, but I miss it!

I always started with a bechamel, then added shredded gruyer, a sharp cheddar, or sometimes, a Norwood, a Swiss - or a combination of any of them. Then, in goes the cooked (in well-salted water), well-drained, pasta, stirred well, and poured into a baking pan. Then, depending on my mood and what I had on hand, topped with more cheese, and either bread crumbs, crushed crackers, crushed, canned onion rings(horribly processed, but yummy), crushed 'shoestring' potatoes, or crushed potatoe chips, and bake until it's golden.

I hope this helps, because yeh, your young'un's method is just plain icky, too me, lol.

I have a big family and I also hate grainy melted cheese... so this recipe reflects that. If you want to scale I have found that a rough ratio of 1tbsp of butter, 1tbsp of flour, 1 cup of milk, and 3 slices of american cheese has worked up and down so far for me. Also the salt and pepper and cayenne vary a bit depending on the batch.

5 tbsp of butter
5 tbsp of flour
5 cups of milk
15 slices of american cheese
1-2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.
3/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
2 (sometimes 2.5) 16oz boxes of small shell noodles
2 lb of bacon

Instructions
1. Cook up 2 lb of bacon ahead of time using you preferred method. I like cooking it on a sheet pan in the oven. Cook until crispy. Cut/crunch into little pieces
2. Boil 7-8 quarts of salted water in a pot on high
3. While it boils, put the butter and flower into a sauce pan on medium to medium low. Whisk until mixed and slightly brown.
4. Add milk, preheated if possible.
5. Add shredded cheddar cheese
6. Once the cheddar cheese has started to melt, add american cheese. (I rip into pieces because I feel like it will melt faster)
7. Once everything is melted, add the salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, stir regularly.
8. At some point during the sauce making, the water should have come to a boil. Add the boxes of small shell noodles at this point, and cook to your preferred point... I cook until they are soft.
9. Pour noodles into a strainer and then back into the pot. Pour the cheese sauce into the pot of noodles and stir well. The sauce may still be a little thin at this point. As it cools it will thicken.
10. Add the bacon pieces and stir.
11. Serve and enjoy :)

My cheat to good mac and cheese with cheap cheese is adding nutritional yeast!

I make a roux, add milk, add cheap cheddar cheese, and flavour to taste with some of : pepper, salt, nutritional yeast, worchestershire sauce, mustard, lemon juice. I sometimes add tumeric and/or paprika for colour.  Sometimes cheap parmesan. Tapioca starch in the roux makes for a gooeyer more stretchy cheese sauce.

If i have better cheese, i probably am not cooking with it, though admit it makes a tasty mac and cheese without all the additives.

I think your son would enjoy my mom's "alfredo' recipe. Cook pasta. Mix with sour cream, pepper, salt, parsley. It was years before i tried alfredo elsewhere and realized what i was missing! Always thought alfredo was awful.

Edit, a week or so later-  Mom coincidentally made her alfredo for me. I forgot the Kraft parmesan! And apparently she adds a bit of butter.  I did figure out why i don't like it, despite it containing many of my favourite things (sour cream, parmesan, butter, salt, pepper, pasta)- apparently i dislike the taste of dry parsley. An easy fix for next time.

Catie George wrote: I think your son would enjoy my mom's "alfredo' recipe. Cook pasta. Mix with sour cream, pepper, salt, parsley. It was years before i tried alfredo elsewhere and realized what i was missing! Always thought alfredo was awful.

That would totally appeal to him, as he loves Sour Cream!

It isn't that he isn't happy to eat better Mac and Cheese, he just usually isn't willing to do the work when he happens to adore noodles just about any form in which he can get them!

When the kids were little, I was given this recipe which they liked quite well. In fact, well enough that I'm pretty sure I doubled the recipe.

Karen's Mac and Cheese

Step 1:
1 1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tsp dried mustard or 1 Tbsp prepared mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cup milk (or a bit less)

- blend in a blender until smooth.

Step 2:
1/4 cup grated onion (or finely chopped greens from walking onion)
1 cup grated cheese
1/2 lb uncooked noodles
fresh grated parmesan

- in a bowl, mix grated cheese, blended mix, onion and noodles. Dump into a casserole dish of an appropriate size, top with parmesan cheese

Step 3:
Bake in a 375F oven for about 45 minutes until the top is browned and the center firm. Don't over-cook.

Boil up an appropriate quantity of whole wheat macaroni.
Grate good cheddar or gruyere at about an ounce or two per serving of pasta.
Make a slightly thinnish bechamel, maybe two or three of cups to a pound of pasta. Season as desired, maybe a little towards the salty side.
Add the cheese to the béchamel. It doesn't need to get smooth.
Sauté an onion and some mushrooms in butter or, if you prefer, olive oil. Or if you eat pork, cook a few strips of bacon, sauté the onion and mushrooms in the bacon fat, then cut up the bacon and add it also.
Mix the sautéed stuff with the pasta, then mix with the sauce.
Put it in a shallow baking dish.
Bake slowly until getting brown on top.

I think the alfredo sauce is a great idea for mac and cheese. My alfredo recipe is a bit different from Catie's (which I definitely plan to try), so I'd like to add it to the mac and cheese recipe collection:

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter
1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the cream and garlic powder.
Simmer 5 minutes then add the cheese, salt, and pepper.
When the cheese is melted and the sauce is creamy, it's ready to pour over pasta.

I use this for Fettuccine Alfredo, but I think any cheese could be substituted for the Parmesan, as well as the pasta of choice.

I like adding cauliflower florets to our mac & cheese.

My fave is a lot like others already posted.  Boil macaroni, mini shells or rotini; make a roux with butter, flour and whole milk; slowly add plenty of shredded sharp cheddar until melted in; add grated or shredded parmesan cheese, about a third as much quantity as the cheddar; combine in large baking dish with drained pasta, broccoli and cauliflower florets, plenty of garlic salt or powder, black pepper and some cayenne if you like a kick, and if I'm feeling ambitious, diced onions sauteed in bacon fat.  You can also add crab or lobster bits, or other protein if desired, but heavier proteins can change the flavor profile.  Top with bread crumbs or not, bake about an hour.  

To deal with the prep time issue, I make a large pan or two and freeze it in single serving portions.  That makes it quick and easy for members of the family who are not inclined to spend time in the kitchen.  I won't have a microwave in my house, but my guy who cannot stand for long with out back pain can just pull out a glass dish of frozen food (or thawed if he plans a day ahead,) replace the plastic lid with foil, heat it up in the toaster oven, and have a filling meal if I'm not there to make him something.  Easy Peasy, and he's not eating highly processed conventional stuff out of a box.  Plus I get a few no-fuss meals out of it as well.

First off ... I don't do macaroni & cheese. I make fresh sourdough egg noodles for the occasion. So much tastier than store bought pasta, in my opinion. Cook the pasta in very salty water.

My cheese preference is a sharp white cheddar, asiago and/or parmesan, and white American cheese. Roughly equal amounts of each. I don't consider American cheese to be real cheese but it melts good & helps the other cheeses blend together. Sometimes I make a roux first then melt the cheeses into that. Or else just melt the cheese into some milk & butter (or bacon grease instead of butter). Add salt & pepper to taste. A little nutmeg or paprika gives it a nice extra boost.

The next step is mix the cheese sauce into the pasta. Pour into a cast iron skillet then sprinkle more unmelted cheese on top. Bake in a cast iron skillet until it's all bubbly & delicious.

Now I'm officially hungry.

None of my preferred answers probably fit your rules.

Here is my favorite powdered cheese answer.  Notice instead of artificial color it uses spices for color and the added chemistry answers are minimal.  It is the box without a box.  In small batches mix with the butter first before adding the milk helps keep it from clumping.

favorite powdered cheese

Melted processed cheese is another preferred answer.  Velveeta or American typically but others too.  A bit of cream added to smooth consistency.

My favourite is a stovetop version, where I make a basic roux sauce, add cheese, keep it hot while I cook homemade sourdough pasta (and usually some leafy greens towards the end of the cook time), then mix through the pasta, heating it up a bit more to make sure it's really bubbling and hot.

I serve kimchi on the side of it. It goes surprisingly well.