Mac and cheese

Mac and cheese

A words mean things commenter named sir_jane_russell asked me to pass along my recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese. And so I shall. It’s actually Pam Anderson’s recipe (not to be confused with Pamela Anderson), from her book “The Perfect Recipe.” The idea here is that rather than making a fussy white sauce, something I never seemed to get the hang of, you make a custard for the cheese. It’s fantastic and easy – not much harder than the box, and so much better.

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk)
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons mustard
10-12 ounces (3 cups) shredded mild cheddar, American or Monterey Jack cheese (not the already-shredded stuff, please)

Boil up the macaroni in salted water, definitely al dente. Once cooked and drained, transfer to large chicken fryer, Dutch oven or similar pan big enough to hold it, and add the butter. You want a heavy-bottomed pan for this.

Meanwhile, mix eggs, 1 cup of evaporated milk, salt, pepper and mustard in a small bowl. With your macaroni over medium heat, pour the egg mixture over the pasta with about 3/4 of the cheese, stirring constantly until cheese starts to melt. Gradually add in the rest of the cheese and evaporated milk, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes more.

And you’re done! I don’t think this tastes as good the second day, but if you do reheat it, do it slow and low with some extra milk.

You can serve it as is and it’s great. If you want to get a little fancier, you could take individual servings, put them each in a small ceramic dish, top them with breadcrumbs or crumbled up croutons and put them under the broiler.

In terms of cheese, I use about half cheddar and half Monterey Jack for this recipe.

This is so good, even David might like it.