It has come to our attention that there are a lot of people for whom Thanksgiving dinner is NOT Thanksgiving dinner unless the menu includes homemade macaroni and cheese. I must confess that this idea is entirely foreign to me. I have NEVER had mac and cheese for any holiday meal, ever. I don’t think Laura has either. We have both been learning, however, that we might be in the minority!
So I turned to my friend Ronda who knows a great deal about all things southern. Of course she had a recipe that she could give me right off the top of her head. Here it is:
Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Cook 1 pound of elbow macaroni noodles according to the directions on the box. Boil it with salt added until desired tenderness. Drain and rinse.
Grate or very thinly slice approximately 1 pound of cheese; Ronda’s preference is sharp cheddar. Extra sharp is a bit TOO much unless you’re really into sharp. Mild or medium washes out.
Place half of the noodles in a casserole dish. Cover with half the cheese (grated works well, but sliced reasonably thin also works.) Place the other half of the noodles over cheese, and then cover with second layer of cheese.
Whisk together 5 eggs. Beat enough to break the yolks and “mix ‘em up”, but don’t beat them too much. Add two cans of evaporated milk, salt and pepper to taste to the eggs, and pour the mixture over the noodles/cheese. The milk and eggs should basically come up to the top of the noodles and cheese. Add more milk if necessary.
Then bake until golden brown and “set”. If you’re using a glass casserole dish, remove it before it’s completely “firm”, because it will continue to cook as the dish cools. You want it “jelled”, but not hard and dry. It can be baked in the oven along with meat or whatever other dishes you’re cooking in the oven, at whatever temp, as long as it’s not too high. Don’t go over about 350°-375° tops.
Another thing you can do is add chopped/cubed ham (or chicken or whatever floats your boat) in the layers of noodles/cheese and make it mac and HAM and cheese.
You can also adjust the amount of cheese to taste. If someone really doesn’t like cheese, then a mild cheese might be a better option, because you won’t taste it. It’ll be a good binder without much taste. On the other hand, if you’re a real cheese fanatic and not much for noodles, then a New York sharp or extra sharp cheddar in large quantity is a go.
Barb
15 Comments
November 20, 2006 at 4:53 pm
wow….yum….ooooh!
That sounds so good, but would never cut it in my family as it isn’t what we grew up with, but I know of many other occasions where it would work.
November 20, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Same here, Kate. If I tried to serve mac and cheese for Thanksgiving dinner, my family would think I”d finally gone round the bend!
I was looking at this recipe thinking about pepperjack cheese…..
November 20, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Hmmm, I grew up in Houston, TX, and never heard of anyone having Mac & Cheese for Thanksgiving. But that recipe does sound good. I’ll file it away for a later date. Oh, and your suggestion for pepperjack – now that sounds more like Texas.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
November 22, 2006 at 9:39 am
I grew up (and currently live) in Mississippi, and I can’t remember a Thanksgiving or Christmas WITHOUT mac and cheese. Our recipes are basically the same, except we include sour cream with the egg/evap milk mixture. It makes a lovely, slice-able, moist casserole. Oh yeah, we also use sharp cheddar along with mozzarella.
November 22, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Ice9, Isn’t it amazing how different the traditions can be from one part of the country to the next? It’s possible that the reason I loathe mac and cheese so is the childhood memory of eating the stuff when it was made with Velveeta. Now THAT is some scary stuff; I’m not sure that it’s actually food!
Journeytomom, once I thought about pepperjack, then my mind started filling in all kinds of other ingredients that would go along with that. We love peppers and hot stuff just about any way it can be fixed. That probably comes from growing up in Arizona and S. California.
Barb
November 22, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I don’t know if it is strictly taboo to mention *other recipes* especially if it comes from she-who-makes-us-all-look-bad’s website and staff of thousands, but the only mac-n-cheese I’ve made from scratch started with a homemade roux, included three cheeses and cubed ham, and was topped off with buttered croutons. To *DIE* for — regardless of the holiday. I’d eat it at Christmas (or maybe the day after CHristmas, when the ham needs to someplace else to be). I actually started writing a children’s book about how much my 9 year old loved it, a story which is still told today.
This was, unfortunately, back in the day before 1/3 of my family became lactose intolerant; in fact, this recipe may have CAUSED said lactose intolerance, now that I think of it. My 1/4 Italian, 1/2 Wisconsin children are deprived of this naughty caloric gift, unless they can make it themselves in the hour we allot for homeschool lunch preparation and consumption. Doesn’t happen.
Said recipe from said kitchen-diva is still available at said website, said said-non-chef.
P
-Crazy Aunt Robyn
November 22, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I know which recipe you’re talking about Robyn, and I’m vaguely remembering that it has about 143,000 calories per serving. NOT that we are overly concerned about calories in general, but I remember thinking that that one was simply over the top for a food that I am not all excited about anyway!
bk
November 22, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Oh, yeah, well, if we’re going to talk CALORIES and ABILITY TO DIGEST without MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, well, yeah. Okay. No.
Interesting note from 143,000 calorie recipe’s page:
If you have ever managed to have a lucid thought while eating this gooey, delicious dish, it may have been to wonder how macaroni and cheese—American cheese melted into a traditional British white sauce served over Italian pasta—came about. It all started during the age of European colonization, when seafaring men transported dried macarone—one of the few staples that could survive a year aboard ship—from Italy to Britain and to the American colonies.
American colonists did not have the selection of fresh produce and other ingredients that the Italians had; their meals were improvised from a larder of fresh or sour milk, stale bread, and pork drippings. So the imported pasta would often be served with a simple white sauce—milk thickened with flour and butter. Sometimes it was baked in a casserole with buttered breadcrumbs on top. A recipe for a casserole of macaroni, white sauce, and grated yellow cheese was first recorded in the “Boston Cooking School Cookbook” in 1896.
Okay, it was a long note: but it shows that macaroni and cheese has probably been around longer than some of our country’s “traditional” Thanksgiving dishes (think “green bean casserole with canned mushroom soup”), even if we think all of those mac-n-cheese eaters are so, well, weird.
P
Kidding, of course: I’d eat all 143,000 calories myself right now if someone slapped a slab of it in front of me.
-Robyn in AK
November 23, 2006 at 5:46 am
I always love a little history with my food.
November 23, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Thank you, Robyn! I’m with Journeytomom. I love hearing the history of food. As you know, food has played an important role in history for thousands of years!
November 25, 2006 at 12:04 am
Barb, are you sure you are remembering Mom’s mac and cheese correctly? I don’t remember Velveeta ever being involved. I only recall her making mac and cheese from the Kraft Mac & Cheese in a box, which hasn’t changed in about 50 years probably. I do agree that Velveeta is a vile substance that can not be classified as actual food. But I have always and will always like the Kraft Mac & Cheese. Call me crazy, but that is a comfort food for me.
November 25, 2006 at 2:53 am
Scott, I am MUCH, MUCH older than you. I expect that explains it. (It at least explains SOMETHING!)
November 8, 2007 at 10:09 pm
[...] Homemade Mac and Cheese [...]
November 20, 2008 at 8:25 am
Hi,
I just had the same experience as the writer. I was speaking with a friend, we are both living in Europe. She is London and I am in Holland. I was speaking about planning my Thanksgiving which I am cooking next week Friday and not Thursday. She was saying that she always had mac n’ cheese with turkey. I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina and consider myself to be a true Southern cook. Never heard of this ever! She is from Chicago, so I attributed it to a midwest thing. As I was planning my menu I was thinking how cheese was noticably absent and I thought well the food is so heavy its probably not necessary…..But you know now I feel like I might have been missing something all these years and by golly I am adding it to my menu!!!
regards,
Karen
February 3, 2009 at 7:20 pm
[...] told them mom loved them? It’s not too late. You can start experimenting now. Consider making homemade macaroni and cheese your signature dish when you want to pamper your family. Think about starting a waffles and ice [...]