>>5-cheese pasta bake

Coincidentally, one of my roomates and I decided to try to make the Ultimate Mac and Cheese, after seeing the Throwdown With Bobby Flay episode about it a month or two ago.

This is the "mother recipe," from which our final one will be derived. Saturday was only step 1. I'll write down the recipe and the notes we had for improvement. Some of these ingredients are just things we had at the house. I recommend buying the cheeses as they come at the deli and shredding/grating just before cooking for the best results.

Ingredients

12 oz. dry macaroni
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk (2%)
1-1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
3/4 cup grated romano (we were going to use asiago, but we already had a block of romano in the fridge)
3/4 cup grated parmesan
3/4 cup shredded provolone
3/4 cup shredded mozerella
3-4 oz. crumbled feta
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped basil
3/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground sea salt
1 heaping teaspoon dijon mustard (we used Grey Poupon Country Dijon)
bread crumbs (we happened to have the butt end of a loaf of french bread that had dried out, so we chopped it up and threw it in the food processor. All told we probably had about a cup and half or so of crumbs, but we didn't use them all.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook macaroni al dente (firm). Rinse in cold water to stop cooking process if necessary.

While macaroni is cooking, shred and grate cheeses, scramble eggs, chop herbs, mince garlic. Throw everything except the breadcrumbs into a large mixing bowl with enough room to accomodate the macaroni when it's done cooking. Mix thoroughly with macaroni. Grease a glass casserole dish with butter, pour ingredients into casserole dish.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until it starts to bubble throughout. If it starts turning brown, you can cover in foil.

After 30 minutes, remove casserole dish. Turn on broiler. Top with breadcrumbs until you can't see noodles (about 1/3-1/2 cup). Shred parmesan cheese in a light layer on top of bread crumbs. Broil for about 3-5 minutes (until breadcrumbs and cheese on top start turning brown).

Remove from oven, let stand 10 minutes, serve.

Things We're Going To Change

-more garlic. Probably 3-4 cloves would be ideal.
-more mustard. 2-3 heaping teaspoons
-a little more feta cheese
-a little more cheddar (1/4 cup or so)
-probably need to reduce other cheeses a little to compensate
-more salt. Try half teaspoon
-add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.
-maybe increase white pepper to 1 teaspoon
-cook breadcrumbs with a little olive oil, garlic, a little salt, herbs (basil, oregano).
-reduce cheeses except cheddar by about 10%, add gruyere

It was quite tasty with the recipe originally posted, but nowhere near "ultimate." Stage 2 will have us doing about 12 souffle dishes with different cheese mixes and techniques and having some friends over to sample and rate the different combos. It may be a month or two before it happens, but when it does I'll post the winning recipe for that round.

Enjoy!

~player of Gulphphunger

From memory, this is what I was cooking about 35 years ago.
Old fashioned Macaroni and Cheese
20 oz. ? dry elbow macaroni
1 lb. ? extra sharp cheddar
? means I'm not sure if this is the exact amount
1/4 lb. butter
1+ cups whole milk
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Boil macaroni to a little less than al dente (6-7 minutes)
Grease Casarole dish with butter.
In thin layers - Macaroni, grated cheddar and a smidgen of salt and pepper until the casarole is full. Add milk until you can see it through the macaroni. Slice remaining butter and place on top.
Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees until golden brown. (30-35 minutes)

Top should be crunchy, fat content should be through the roof. Good black pepper is as important as the sharpness of the cheese.

mfberg

<<Stage 2 will have us doing about 12 souffle dishes with different cheese mixes and techniques and having some friends over to sample and rate the different combos.>>

Let me know when to be there.

I'll bring my own fork.

(Thanks for the recipe, by the way...I almost bought her cookbook just to get it.)


Solomon


"Experience will come, it's not a race or anything. The ones who kill themselves to get to the finish are the ones who tire out quickly."
http://www.myspace.com/simutronicsdragonrealms

>>Let me know when to be there.
>>I'll bring my own fork.

>>OMG yeah seriously let us know when the tasting is.

Well, I'm in Maryland. An advantage for Dulci, but perhaps Bubba could take a "business trip" to the Maryland or Virginia Simu offices. I am not at all opposed to a mac and cheese/cookout party. I haven't fired up the grill in over a month, which is a travesty in and of itself.

We might be coming to Simucon this year, too. Perhaps we could work something out on that end.

>>(Thanks for the recipe, by the way...I almost bought her cookbook just to get it.)

That's not her recipe--that's just a base recipe we came up with that was inspired by a combo of Flay, Mac Lady, and the stuff we like. Hers was a "7-cheese," from what I recall, and she used no herbs or garlic and about a metric ton of eggs (1 dozen per casserole). If I remember, her cheeses were:

Cheddar
Velveeta
Monterey Jack
Mozerella
Muenster
Either gruyere or parmesan. Can't remember.

She calls it a 7-cheese because she uses "two kinds" of cheddar--yellow and white. The only difference, however, is food coloring. The mac looked to be primarily cheddar and Velveeta (ugh), so I'd probably try it with a 5-2-1-1-1-1 proportion to account for her "2 types" of cheddar and the meltability of Velveeta. If I'm not mistaken I think there was about a stick of butter in there, too, but I don't remember too clearly. It's been a bit since I've seen it.

Did you know that recently the FDA made Kraft change the label on Velveeta from cheese food to cheese product because to be cheese food it has to have at least 51% cheese? It's pretty much cheese-making byproducts emulsified in oil and processed whey proteins, along with preservatives and food coloring. I'll stick to actual cheeses, but thanks all the same.

~player of Gulphphunger

>>Hrm....I don't recall hers having Velveeta in it at all...I'll have to watch that again.

I could be wrong. I thought I saw it in there (though I think they had to obfuscate the label). I, too, shall have to watch the episode again. I mean, hey--it's mac and cheese. That never gets old. I'd also like to see Alton Brown's take on the subject.

>><3 me some Velveeta toasted cheese product sandwiches, tho!

I'm not proud to admit that I do secretly enjoy Cheese Whiz, which is pretty much the same thing. I just feel wrong cooking more serious things with it. Let's just leave that here on the DR Forums, though.

~player of Gulphphunger