Adventures in cooking: Mac & Cheese (RL)

[thistlechaser]

Because Alton Brown is a wise and wonderful man, I went to him for a recipe:

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1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

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I didn't buy eggs because I didn't want icky uncooked eggs in my mac&cheese. (Yeah, yeah, maybe the heat from the pasta might have cooked them, but maybe not!) I don't like onions or pepper (or I assume hot sauce) so I didn't add those things. Oh, and I had totally missed that it was evaporated milk, so I bought normal (2%) while shopping.

So I started the pasta boiling and came to the first problem: Six ounces of milk? Buh? How much is that? Why not give it to us in cups or tablespoons or something? I hit Google and found that it would be about a quarter of a quart, so I eyeballed it. Stupid ounces.

Same problem with the cheese, so I sort of estimated it.

Pasta finished, I ate a piece to check it for done-ness, and went on with things. Added butter, milk, cheese. Very very oddly, nothing turned orange! Mac & cheese is orange and the cheese itself was bright orange, so I was sort of expecting some normal looking results. It looked mostly pasta-colored, so I figured I'd add more cheese (since the cheese was orange) to make it orange.

When it was done, I tried a bite to see how it was:

1) Though I had tested a piece before draining it, I must have gotten an odd piece. Most of the pasta was less cooked than I like.
2) You'd think "mac and cheese" tasting like pasta and cheese would be correct, but oddly it's not. I guess mac & cheese usually tastes like other stuff too. Plus mine was too strongly cheese-y flavored, probably from adding the extra cheese in at the end.

Unfortunately it really wasn't all that good at all. I ate part of a tiny bowl of it, and packed the rest into the fridge for tomorrow. I highly doubt that making cheese toast from it will improve it any, but might as well try.

Here's cheese toast, so I don't have to go looking it up tomorrow. Hmm, I don't have cayenne and I never bought eggs, so who knows how this will come out! I guess I'll use the 2% milk for dipping in place of eggs. Plus I'd never ever heat oil for frying (I'd burn down my apartment or something!) so I'll put butter in a frying pan and see how that works.

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Leftover baked macaroni and cheese, refrigerated for at least overnight
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 egg beaten with 2 ounces water
1 cup panko bread crumbs
Oil for deep frying, preheated to 375 degrees

Cut refrigerated macaroni and cheese into slices or bite size pieces.

Season the flour with salt, pepper and cayenne. Dredge each piece through the flour and gently tap off excess. Dip in the egg wash and then coat with the bread crumbs. Allow them to rest for 5 minutes so the crust can set. Very carefully drop into the oil and fry until golden brown. Remove to a baking sheet fitted with a rack and rest for 2 minutes before serving.

Comments

[loneguardian.livejournal.com]

That is why I only eat mac n cheese from a box. In my experience, 95% of 'baked' or 'homemade' mac n cheese is yucky, or at least not remotely as tasty as mac-in-a-box. :x Also, changing anything on a recipie will always change how it turns out more than you think it will, even just taking out eggs, or using regular milk instead of powdered milk (which I did once and OMG the agony @_@).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, every time I leave something out, it turns out to seriously change the end product.

I miss my bright orange mac and cheese!

[fealu-bryne.livejournal.com]

I guess I can understand where that's coming from, but my mom's homemade mac 'n cheese is so much more wonderful than the shit-tastic stuff in a box. For serious. It's not fancy, nothing like this recipe (is that even mac 'n cheese?!) but it's wonderful.

Thistle? Mac 'n Cheese = cooked pasta (any kind works, really), cheese and milk and butter melted, and mix the crap together. Meanwhile, shred some bread and toss it in a pan with butter until nicely browned. Dump on top of Mac 'n Cheese, bake for awhile, and ta-da!

It's not that horrible powdery "cheese product" stuff. *shudders*

[loneguardian.livejournal.com]

I envy you, then, I'd really adore some homemade stuff that actually tasted good. ;_; Alas, my mom can't cook macncheese worth beans so I get to deal with the boxed stuff. (Which is really good when you add in a little extra milk and some real cheese, yum!)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Mac 'n Cheese = cooked pasta (any kind works, really), cheese and milk and butter melted, and mix the crap together.

Hee, that's exactly what I did! (No nice bread topping through.) Didn't come out too well though. :P

[morinotokei.livejournal.com]

Mustard? Hot sauce? That's a strange macaroni and cheese recipe. Yeah, I've tried making it from scratch myself and it's not that bad but also doesn't taste much better than the box kind. But of course when my mom makes it, it takes like heaven. It's just not fair. D:

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought those were kind of odd things to put it in as well. I did use the mustard powder (bought a bottle of it just for this!) but I couldn't taste it at all.

I might just stick with frozen/microwaveable stuff from now on! :P

And mmm, you icon looks so yummy!

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Dude... you make me want to visit you and cook, even though I'm pretty bad at it.

People generally think Alton's Mac&Cheese recipe is a little heavy on the mustard, but the other stuff would probably have made your batch more palatable! The eggs would have cooked along with the other liquids in that stirring period... Though it's probably a good thing that you didn't notice that you were supposed to get evaporated milk, because you might have gotten condensed by mistake.

You are SO adorably inept. Liquids-wise, a cup is eight ounces... just remember that, and hopefully you'll be okay. Don't you have a measuring cup that lists cups/ounces/milliliters? Maybe you should invest in one of those, and a kitchen scale? If you haven't been scared back to the box...

[reynardstruan.livejournal.com]

Inept? Compared to me, that's Iron Chef material. When I cook, it either involves a call to the fire department, or I wind up with botulism.

Botulism != fun

[reynardstruan.livejournal.com]

As an example, I cite from my non-FFXI journal this (http://citizenbleys.livejournal.com/259650.html#cutid1).

(Sidenote: The reason the lettuce turned out so poorly is because it was, in fact, a fucking cabbage)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*reads and snickers* You and I should get together and cook! It would mean the end of the world as people know it!

(Sidenote: The reason the lettuce turned out so poorly is because it was, in fact, a fucking cabbage)

*rolls* That's so something I would do.

[reynardstruan.livejournal.com]

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's so funny!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

First off: Who is that in your icon? He's cute!

Next time I'm going to get eggs in a carton, so I can use them raw and not worry. And the darned cheese was so strong that I didn't taste the mustard (or anything else!) at all. Blech.

Though it's probably a good thing that you didn't notice that you were supposed to get evaporated milk, because you might have gotten condensed by mistake.

Ha ha, yes! That would have made for funny results. :P

You are SO adorably inept. Liquids-wise, a cup is eight ounces...

Heehee, thanks. :) But see, translating a cup and to an ounce didn't seem to make sense. Ounce is a unit of weight and a cup isn't. A cup of milk wouldn't be the same number of ounces that a cup of liquid metal would be... That being said, I think my cups might have ounces on them as well as cups, I'll have to look at it when I get home.

Maybe you should invest in one of those, and a kitchen scale? If you haven't been scared back to the box...

Hee, the only reason I have measuring cups is because my mother sends them to me for Christmas/birthday/whatever. Shhh! She might hear you about the scale and send me one! She's sent me all sorts of funky things that are now sitting in drawers (mixers, odd tools, strange metal things...).

[southern-hell.livejournal.com]

Using straight milk in place of an egg wash is probably not a good idea >_>;;

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

So people are telling me. I think I'll just toss out the rest of the mac&cheese and start over again some other day...

[animarelic.livejournal.com]

Eggs are a sticky/binding agent in that recipie. You can't use just plain milk in place of them because then nothing sticks to the noodles, hence no taste.

But cooking is an art - so do experiment a little bit.

Just remember that baking is a science - no substitutions and no omissions without proper understanding of baking laws. ~_^ Mmm, cookies...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eggs are a sticky/binding agent in that recipie. You can't use just plain milk in place of them because then nothing sticks to the noodles, hence no taste.

Drat. Next time I'm going to get those eggs in a carton and use those.


Just remember that baking is a science - no substitutions and no omissions without proper understanding of baking laws. ~_^ Mmm, cookies...

Yes, my "randomly leaving out this and substituting that" seems not to be working. :P

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

I have made that same recipe a number of times and I have to say I like it a lot. If you get the chance, you might want to make it with ah, fewer substitutions? If it didn't taste too mustardy, you probably don't mind the taste of dry mustard... some people said they liked it with half that much (as metron_ariston already said). I usually like it just like it is (hot sauce and all).

The eggs and the mustard both contain emulsifiers, which keep the oil and water together in a sauce... without it you might end up with noodles, clumpy cheese bits and oil. If you didn't have that problem, you're probably good go to, but you may observe a bit of oilyness the next day. (Ain't science fun!) Also Evaporated milk is concentrated, and if you're afraid of raw eggs, try out the egg product in the yellow carton.

If you really like your recipes "Akane-style", check out this recipe page:
http://amhq.tripod.com/recipes.htm
There's even Akane-style macaroni!
http://amhq.tripod.com/recipes/shotgunmac.htm

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I have made that same recipe a number of times and I have to say I like it a lot. If you get the chance, you might want to make it with ah, fewer substitutions? If it didn't taste too mustardy, you probably don't mind the taste of dry mustard...

Yeah, maybe one day I'll follow it as-is. I couldn't taste the mistard at all. The cheese was really, really, really strong (almost too strong) and I couldn't taste much of anything else.

The eggs and the mustard both contain emulsifiers, which keep the oil and water together in a sauce...

Ah, I did notice it was a little ... odd. Watery here and clumpy there.

and if you're afraid of raw eggs, try out the egg product in the yellow carton.

That's a great idea! Next time I'll do that.

[yshyn.livejournal.com]

I'll take it that if you don't like the mere thought of uncooked egg, you've probably never licked a cake mix bowl.

You, my friend, have never lived, in that case.

But yeah, what other people said in earlier posts. That's probably why it didn't taste so great, leaving eggs out like that. ^^ You'll really only have a problem if the eggs aren't fresh, which is when you risk food poisoning. It's the same with any ingredients really. A good indication is if you look at it and it smells bad, then it's gone off. Seems obvious, but sometimes you look at something and don't know if it's bad or not. Surprisingly we're designed to figure out when things have gone bad, who'd have though it? But for things like eggs: if you crack the egg and the yolk breaks before you've even touched it, it's gone bad, as a rule of thumb.

Cooking is easy. Follow a recipe, and it'll work. It's a bit like chemistry, except you can eat the result.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'll take it that if you don't like the mere thought of uncooked egg, you've probably never licked a cake mix bowl.

When I was a small kid, my mother gave me a bowl to lick. I had watched her make the batter, so I knew what had gone into it. As I was licking, I asked her how the egg became cooked when it hadn't been near heat yet. She told me (duh) it wasn't. I promptly handed the bowl back and haven't licked a bowl or eaten raw cookie dough since.

Cooking is easy. Follow a recipe, and it'll work. It's a bit like chemistry, except you can eat the result.

Silly Sylf should be a chef instead of a mad scientist! (But seriously, yeah. I really need to stop leaving things out. Stuff never comes out well when I do.)

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

My chillun prefer the bright orange Kraft mac-n-cheese, but the spouse likes homemade, so I occasionally make it. I've never done a recipe that comes together all on the stovetop, though; I make the sauce, pour it over already-boiled pasta, and then bake it. And since the spouse isn't too adventurous with seasonings (he never wants to stray too far from the holy trinity of salt, pepper and garlic powder) it's pretty basic-tasting- just 5 ingredients plus seasonings- and there are no eggs. If you aren't too scarred by this experience and ever want to try again, I can write you out a recipe. Or mail you a casserole full, or something! ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hee! No need to send me the pre-made product, but I'd love the recipe! I'm so totally not spice-adventurous (pepper is a stretch for me!), so your version sounds just right for me!

Thanks. :)