Silky stovetop mac & cheese with crunchy topping

I'm gonna show you a couple ways to do a homemade stovetop mac and cheese that is every bit as silky smooth as the stuff you get from a box the reason that stuff is so smooth is because of emulsifying salts usually sodium phosphate and/or sodium citrate these have the effect of kind of unfurling the milk protein casein which is then able to bind with both water and fat it brings the two phases together into a protein web a thick luscious sauce far smoother than a normal homemade cheese sauce brought together with starch one way to get your own emulsifying salts at home is to use processed cheese this is called American cheese here in the US the Brits call it a cheese slice it's usually cheddar and maybe Colby cheese all ground up and then reconstituted with emulsifying salts that make it unnaturally smooth melting there's actually enough sodium phosphate and citrate in here to emulsify a bunch more cheese and milk so I'm gonna use half American cheese and half something else any real cheese that is reputed to melts reasonably well is gonna work here that's generally gonna be a semi-firm cheese and I would use something strong and distinctive I think that's the whole point of doing this instead of making mac from a box smoked cheeses work great smoked gouda or smoked cheddar sharp cheddar the cheddar in American cheese is comparatively young and bland Jack cheese would be a more mild choice a semi-firm bleu cheese would be really funky but I'm gonna go with this semi-firm goat's milk cheese this will bring a nice acidic twang I'll grate that up the recipe I'm gonna show you makes one large dinner sized portion or it served two to four people as a side dish you can multiply it as needed we need 1/2 cup of grated cheese packed packing it down helps you get a more accurate measurement by weight we're looking for about 50 grams of real cheese and we need a roughly equal quantity of processed cheese that'll be about 3 of these slices get some water on the boil for your macaroni big pinch of salt in there and I'm gonna use elbow macaroni which is the classic choice at least in America though I will use a larger size than what Kraft gives you in the box when the water is boiling that goes in I'm putting in a quarter of the box that's a quarter pound a quarter of a 500 gram box in Europe for example would be 125 grams or like 10 more grams than this but this is not an exact science just cook that as long as the instructions say in this case that's seven minutes which is the perfect amount of time to make our cheese sauce into a cold pan goes our graded real cheese and our torn up processed cheese with just under half a cup of milk 100 mils and then 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter depending on how rich you like it 2 tablespoons would be like 30 grams turn the heat on about medium-high and then you have to stir this constantly until it has melted smooth it'll just take a few minutes but you have to stir it constantly to make the emulsion form here's what happens if you don't stir constantly I've ignored this for a couple of minutes and now I'll stir it up everything's melted but you can see on the side of the pan there how grainy the sauce is and it's totally loose and watery the emulsion never formed the sauce curdled it's broken people have ways of fixing this but I don't think any of them really work let's just start over 100 mils are a little less than half a cup of milk in a cold pan you might try starting with like 1/3 of a cup you can always add more later if the sauce is too thick for your liking I'll tear in my three slices of American cheese there's my half a cup packed of grated real cheese we're looking for a hundred grams of cheese total and my 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter heat goes on medium high and this time we'll stir it constantly and check it out the emulsifying salts are going to work on the milk proteins exposing the hydrophilic and lipophilic ends of those proteins which will then join up with the water and fat molecules in the pan after a few minutes of constant stirring we've got a smooth stable thick emulsion probably too thick I was conservative with my milk upfront by the time this cools to eating temperature it'll be gluey it should look a little too loose when it's very hot so I'll just stir in a little bit more milk if you overshoot on the liquid if it seems too thin you can just melt in a little more of the processed cheese you can use the real cheese instead but at some point you would exceed the emulsifying power of the salts in there so it's safer to adjust with the processed cheese noodles are done I'll just drain them I usually drain through a gap in the pot lid that way I don't have to get a strainer dirty dump that in and there we go if it looks a little too soupy at this stage that's good the sauce will thicken as it cools to eating temperature you could taste this and then add any seasonings you want i usually don't think it needs any additional salt but you might if you wanted to make this slightly less of an empty calorie bomb you could do what i do for my kids which is stir in some frozen peas directly at this stage they'll thaw instant ain't in the pot real good in the second half of this video I'm gonna show you how to make this if you don't have access to processed cheese slices and I'll show you some ways to make it a little bit more interesting or flavorful but I do love the simple version sauce as smooth as honey which happens to be the sponsor of this video honey is a free extension that you install on your web browser and whenever you shop online it'll find promo codes that'll save you money it takes two clicks to install for free and I'll show you how it works mac and cheese isn't my guiltiest pleasure my guiltiest pleasure is Papa John's the kids love the breadsticks so I go online to order and when I get to the checkout page honey pops up and asks if I want to try some coupon codes absolutely it does its thing and boom I just saved 20% on this order it's that easy and it'll help you get the best deals at Amazon GrubHub Walmart Target Nintendo almost any place you could think of you can also go to join honey calm and browse for deals there honey does not sell your personal information they get a sales commission from the companies you shop from that's how they make money there's literally no reason to not use honey for everything you buy online it's free to use and installs in just two clicks get honey for free at join honey calm slash Ragusa that's join honey calm slash Ragusa link is in the description you'll be doing us both a favor thank you honey okay let's say you can't get processed cheese slices or say you don't want to use them you only want to use high-quality real cheese well you can buy your own emulsifying salts on the internet this is sodium citrate it's cheap and it lasts forever in your pantry it tastes like slightly tart salt which makes sense it is the sodium salt of citric acid same basic recipe we need a hundred grams of cheese total I'm gonna go with my favorite cheese combination for mac and cheese which is smoked gouda and super sharp cheddar but get creative and use whatever combination of semi-firm cheese as you like again same basic recipe I'm looking for one cup of packed shredded cheese or a hundred grams total it's nice to have a little extra in case you decide you want to add some more you can also just scatter some over the top at the end for some textural contrast water on the boil with a big pinch of salt and speaking of textural contrast let's make a little bread crumb topping stovetop mac does not have the naturally brown top you get on baked mac so it can be a little homogeneous and boring to eat we can fix that by melting some butter in a pan and browning some breadcrumbs in it I'm doing like half a cup of panko into a couple tablespoons of butter you could use any breadcrumbs but panko is the crispiest this would be enough topping for a whole family meal of mac and cheese a whole box of noodles my recipe times for if you're just making one or two portions I'd do like a quarter of this topping and I absolutely would just eyeball it heat is on medium high and I'm stirring constantly when it starts to brown it'll happen very fast and that's when you can optionally stir in some herbs and spices I'm just doing a little herbs de Provence blend use whatever but cooking it a little bit at the end here helps to intensify the flavor just be careful about burning it nice and brown all the way through I will dump that onto some paper towels to cool off and drain the paper towels will ensure that they're still crispy when we eat again a quarter pound of the elbows into the boiling water a quarter of the Box one big dinner sized portion or a few portions as a side dish into my cold pan goes 1/2 a cup of milk again I usually put in a little bit less to start with because I can always add more later the exact amount of moisture you need could depend on the cheese you're using you could use evaporated milk for a sweeter flavor or alternatively you could just use water if you have trouble digesting lactose there's comparatively little lactose in the cheese now my recipe in the description calls for a teaspoon of sodium citrate like 4 grams but just like the milk I'm putting in a little less than a teaspoon because I can always add more in goes my packed cup of grated cheese 100 grams and 30 grams of butter a couple of tablespoons that you could use less heat on medium-high and remember stir it constantly it'll just take a few minutes and look at that don't take it past a simmer it could burn easily I'm gonna turn the heat off if it's too thick you can add more milk if it's too thin you could put in a little more cheese or a little more sodium citrate the sodium citrate acts like a thickener in a cheese sauce like this but remember that it's salty you could overseas in your sauce with it I think this looks perfect as is I like my sauce on the thick side I'll drain off those noodles and in they go another way to loosen this would be to let some of the boiling water go in with the noodles remember if it looks a little too loose at this stage that's good it'll thicken as it cools now is when I would consider adding some additional flavors I'm gonna go with like 1/4 TSP of garlic powder and mustard powder 1/4 TSP of mustard powder okay fine I'll take off the shaky lid thingy you could go with the whole mustard if you wanted to I loved that but remember it's acidic so it ends up making this taste more like pasta salad than mac and cheese which is not a bad thing it's just different with a baked mac and cheese you have to guess about the flavoring amounts but with a stovetop mac we're flavoring the finished product so we don't have to guess we just mix in a little bit taste it mix in a little more until we like it you can't lose into a bowl that goes and scatter on that beautiful crispy topping now we've got some nice heterogeneous texture each bite is a little bit different that is so good and it took 15 minutes start to finish don't be scared about using the amazing food additives that science hath wrought you're probably eating emulsifying salts all the time in processed foods there's sodium citrate in soda for example you're probably consuming it anyway you might as well use it to get the most preternaturally gooey smooth cheese sauce you've ever made go science

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 1,735,183

Rating: 4.9455042 out of 5

Keywords: macaroni and cheese recipe easy, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese, mac and cheese recipe, homemade mac and cheese, stovetop mac and cheese, easy mac and cheese, comfort food, mac n cheese, how to make mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese recipe, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate mac and cheese, sodium citrate cheese sauce, sodium citrate cheese, emulsifying salt, American cheese, cheese slice

Id: tSfHVTx1WMk

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/2Liberal4You]

Question: hasn't he already basically made this recipe without the bread crumbs?

[u/Chip2Putt]

Don’t really think we needed another Mac and cheese video, but this video was done well and it seems like Adam is finding a sweet spot for his teaching style. No being super preachy or putting down common practices in favour of his methods, just simply stating his methods and why they work. Big improvement imo to his knife skills or macaron videos. Good stuff Adam!

[u/9ineand3quarters]

I would be wary of the slight sour flavor sodium citrate imparts. Also, why would someone not have access to processed cheese but have access to sodium citrate? I was expecting another recipe with either a roux, boiling the pasta in milk+water, using milk+eggs,...

[u/Conifium]

Next time I make Mac and cheese I’ll probably use this recipe, I absolutely loved the end result of the Mac from his last video but it takes so long to finish

[u/SamwiseGam-G]

To the people angry about this recipe, please be considerate and try to understand a few things:

1. Yes, this recipe is EXTREMELY similar to a video Adam made in the past. However, at its core, this is a different recipe.

2. There's a lot of shit going on, fellas. I'm willing to accept that he might not be on top of his game right now.

3. This is his family's source of income (I believe his only one right now). If he doesn't have good ideas for videos, what is he supposed to do?

4. To the people complaining that he only does Italian recipes, I mean, yes, I would like a larger variety of foods, but it makes sense that, being that he's Italian, he makes a lot of Italian food.

   I want better videos too, but please try to understand his situation, and understand that he doesn't owe you anything. You don't have to watch, but please don't harass him, he's still a person.