PSA: Macaroni noodles with shredded cheese is not "macaroni & cheese"

[Fanatical Meat]

Either condensed milk is a different thing in the US, Macaroni cheese is a different thing in the US, or you have non functioning tastebuds. Condensed milk is insanely sweet, you can make fudge out of it without adding anything else to it!

Melt butter, fry flour in butter. Slowly add milk until you get a creamy thick béchamel sauce. Season, add LOTS of strong cheese.
While that is doing cook some macaroni. When you take out and drain the macaroni depends on how dry or soggy you want your dish. Take it out a bit before its done, drain it and add it to the sauce and finish cooking it in the sauce will give you a dryer consistency.
Yay! Basic macaroni and cheese done!

you can get unsweetened or less sweet or something condensed milk however I agree condensed milk should only be used when you need it done fast & simple. Proper way is to make a béchamel then add the cheese, then add the cooked pasta.

 

[WelshBloke]

you can get unsweetened or less sweet or something condensed milk however I agree condensed milk should only be used when you need it done fast & simple. Proper way is to make a béchamel then add the cheese, then add the cooked pasta.

I don't think that I've ever seen unsweetened condensed milk over here.
We have evaporated milk which is just concentrated milk which I guess would be similar but I can't imagine using that either.

Tbh making a bechamel only takes a few minutes and you have to boil the pasta anyway so there's plenty of time to make it!

 

[sandorski]

Kraft Dinner or get thinner.

 

[Torn Mind]

Kraft Dinner or get thinner.

Germans have secretly been planning to conquer the world through their food. Frankfurters, Hamburgers, Ketchup.

 

[kage69]

Kraft Dinner or get thinner.

What cracks me up is Canadians calling it Kraft Dinner, even when it's not from a box, or Kraft.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

To give your mac n cheese that extra zing, add some Bleu.

 

[WelshBloke]

To give your mac n cheese that extra zing, add some Bleu.

Bleu is not a cheese its a colour.
Presumably you don't call all your other cheese Jaune?

 

[sdifox]

What cracks me up is Canadians calling it Kraft Dinner, even when it's not from a box, or Kraft.

 

[sandorski]

View attachment 48456

Gotta say that I don't like the "Cheesier" "cheese".

 

[sdifox]

Gotta say that I don't like the "Cheesier" "cheese".

I would not eat it at all. Only posted the pix to counter Cage's fake news

 

[Dirigible]

Thirteen bucks! Watch your knuckles!

View attachment 48450

Box graters are shit when you're serious about grating cheese. You're not using your large muscles effectively, the force of the cheese pushed against the grater tends to move the base, and the interior is not very large, which necessitates frequent clearing stops.

A high-quality flat grater is much better. You jam one end into your belly, and hold it horizontally extending away from you. You use your bicep, a strong muscle, to pull the cheese towards your torso. The grater stays in place and does not move down when you press the cheese against it because it is held in one of the depressions between your rock-hard abs you developed from grating cheese and a healthy outdoors-based exercise lifestyle fueled by nutritious cheese. Your grater is over a plate or bowl on the counter, which provides ample volume to quickly grate 2 pounds of cheese without stopping.

Not surprisingly, it was difficult to find a decent flat grater to link with a quick Amazon search. Big Box Grater has a stranglehold on America. :x After a bit more searching, I found this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Browne-Stainless-Steel-Coarse-Grater/dp/B00062KT4O/ref=psdc_16439861_t4_B00004RDEG

It's more pricey, but assuming it's quality, with strong metal and not some thin flexible POS, a good grater is worth it.

*Dirigible shakes fist at Big Box Grater in anger*

 

[nakedfrog]

I use shredded cheese with sodium citrate to make liquid cheese, and also use it for stuff like pizza, nachos, baked potatoes, tacos, quesadillas, omelets, etc. I used to have just a manual cheese shredder, but I discovered I preferred to do like a block at a time & just throw it in a large Ziploc bag, and it was so much easier to use an electric tool to do it.

It seems like every time I check, the cheese I buy costs the same per ounce whether it's in block form or already shredded...

What cracks me up is Canadians calling it Kraft Dinner, even when it's not from a box, or Kraft.

My sister's kids call all ramen "Maruchan", allegedly it's a Mexican thing? Not sure how far it extends, they're from Alabama. Interesting pronunciation on it too.

 

[sdifox]

It seems like every time I check, the cheese I buy costs the same per ounce whether it's in block form or already shredded...

My sister's kids call all ramen "Maruchan", allegedly it's a Mexican thing? Not sure how far it extends, they're from Alabama. Interesting pronunciation on it too.

pre shredded cheese have cellulose mixed in to make it not cake together.

 

[sdifox]

It seems like every time I check, the cheese I buy costs the same per ounce whether it's in block form or already shredded...

My sister's kids call all ramen "Maruchan", allegedly it's a Mexican thing? Not sure how far it extends, they're from Alabama. Interesting pronunciation on it too.

Ramen Noodle Soup Packets - Maruchan

Our packaged ramen noodle soup comes in a variety of yummy flavors that make for a delicious meal. Head to your local store to try out some of our flavors!

www.maruchan.com

It's a brand. I guess that is the only brand they know. They are instant noodles, not ramen, in the first place.

 

[nakedfrog]

pre shredded cheese have cellulose mixed in to make it not cake together.

The stuff I buy uses potato starch for that. Also, so what?

Ramen Noodle Soup Packets - Maruchan

Our packaged ramen noodle soup comes in a variety of yummy flavors that make for a delicious meal. Head to your local store to try out some of our flavors!

www.maruchan.com

It's a brand. I guess that is the only brand they know.

I'm aware that it's a brand, it's just like calling all tissues "Kleenex" or, indeed, all macaroni and cheese "Kraft dinner", hence why I mentioned it

 

[sdifox]

The stuff I buy uses potato starch for that. Also, so what?

I'm aware that it's a brand, it's just like calling all tissues "Kleenex" or, indeed, all macaroni and cheese "Kraft dinner", hence why I mentioned it

so it is not 100% cheese... I have a feeling the Maruchan thing is not as universal as KD or Kleenex.

 

[JM Aggie08]

This thread reminded me of this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/grilledcheese/comments/2or1p3

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I rarely take longer to make something than I will to eat it. Open box, add water, heat.

That even goes for turkey that takes hours to cook and days to eat.

All this hooey about shredding and canned or uncanned milk and whatever bchannle is, I care nothing about.

 

[Dirigible]

This thread reminded me of this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/grilledcheese/comments/2or1p3

While entertaining, that was a silly rant about something that doesn't matter.

This thread is a Serious Conversation about an Extremely Important topic.

 

[sdifox]

I rarely take longer to make something than I will to eat it. Open box, add water, heat.

That even goes for turkey that takes hours to cook and days to eat.

All this hooey about shredding and canned or uncanned milk and whatever bchannle is, I care nothing about.

MREs are kind of expensive.

 

[nakedfrog]

so it is not 100% cheese... I have a feeling the Maruchan thing is not as universal as KD or Kleenex.

So what if it's not 100% cheese? There's only enough to keep it from caking, and it saves you the time/effort of shredding cheese.

Yeah, also like I said, it's allegedly Mexican in origin, and I'm not sure if that's just a "Mexicans in the American south" thing or what. Her kids all grew up primarily speaking spanish, and have Mexican fathers.

 

[nakedfrog]

I rarely take longer to make something than I will to eat it. Open box, add water, heat.

That even goes for turkey that takes hours to cook and days to eat.

All this hooey about shredding and canned or uncanned milk and whatever bchannle is, I care nothing about.

Some people eat because they have to, some people eat because they enjoy it.

 

[sdifox]

So what if it's not 100% cheese? There's only enough to keep it from caking, and it saves you the time/effort of shredding cheese.

Yeah, also like I said, it's allegedly Mexican in origin, and I'm not sure if that's just a "Mexicans in the American south" thing or what. Her kids all grew up primarily speaking spanish, and have Mexican fathers.

I am not paying for papar at cheese prices I don't tend to care how long it takes me to cook something.
I am marinating shredded pork for five days to make Taiwanese sausage.

Japanese - American brand.

Maruchan - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Kaido]

It seems like every time I check, the cheese I buy costs the same per ounce whether it's in block form or already shredded...

The benefit is that you can shred real cheese, so if you want shredded Monterey, Pepper Jack, etc. it's not just the typical moz or cheddar or 4-cheese blend with whatever additives they add in to prevent it from sticking together.

 

[HomerJS]

TIL if you use macaroni and cheese to make macaroni and cheese, it's not actually macaroni and cheese.

I just buy the boxed stuff (Annie's). It's good enough for me.

You might want to read the ingredients and then get back to us.

I stand corrected. For a box mix ingredients don't look too bad albeit very heavily processed

Organic Pasta (Organic Wheat Flour), Dried Cheddar Cheese (Cultured Pasteurized Milk, Salt, Non-Animal Enzymes), Whey, Butter, Nonfat Milk, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Silicon Dioxide (For Anticaking).