- I just apologize to
the audience in advance, not just for this episode,
but for this whole season of what you're going to see me handling. - [Keith] Welcome to the
macaroni and cheese episode of Without A Recipe holiday season. - [Ned] It's going to
get hot in this kitchen. - I would say it's "mac and rooni," 'cause it was rude to serve. - We're making the pasta. - My pasta water's not boiling yet! - Make our cheese sauce. - Why did this (beep) happen? It was perfect yesterday! It was (beep) perfect! - And then whatever topping. - Balls?
- Balls. - Oh, no! Okay. - I know that it's
(beep) up, let's move on. - Forfeit.
(laughs) (epic music) (festive music) - [Narrator] The Try Guys
are back in the test kitchen for another Without A Recipe. Today, they will be making mac and cheese. - It is the most anticipated
side of every meal that it gets to be a side of, whether it be Thanksgiving,
a barbecue picnic, mac and cheese is the (beep). - [Narrator] The Try
Guys will have two days. One day to make the pasta, the cheese sauce, and the toppings. - Oh, I can just peel it, almost like... Look, I can just peel the balls. - [Narrator] And the second
day to put everything together. Then, they will present
it to a panel of judges. - Never had balls in my mouth. (laughs) - Not once in my life.
- Not once. - Me neither. - Welcome back to episode two Without A Recipe, the holiday edition. - Hello, my name is Rome Green, and I am a co-creator
of the world-renowned sunglasses business, Shady Side Up, and also one fifth of the phenomenal comedy collective, Dormtainment. - My name is Cam, and I'm also from the world-renowned Shady Side Up, and from the comedy
collective Dormtainment. And I'm qualified to judge macaroni because, frankly, I'm black. (laughs) - Hi everybody, I'm Rosanna Pansino, and I host one of the
most popular baking shows on the internet and Baketopia on HBO Max. - I'm Big K of Bludso, Bludso's
Bar and Que, Bludso's BBQ. I've been eating mac and
cheese my whole life, so I'ma be on you Try Guys. I'm looking forward to it, but I want some mac and
cheese, not no mac and sleaze, and I don't want no damn
mac and phony, okay? (laughs) So let's eat and let's have a good time. I'm with it. - Kevin Bludso's judging? From The Great American Barbecue Showdown? I know his life story, too, 'cause of Eat The Menu of Bludo's. So like he, as a kid, he worked in Texas with his grandmother. So he learned all these
Texas grandmother recipes. That's worth its weight in gold. - So we opened up Bludso's in '08, but what sets us apart is that we focus on low and slow barbecue, that's what we do. When they come in, we try
to make it an experience, just like it was going
to my granny's house. But macaroni and cheese
is a Southern staple. It's not too many families,
black or Southern white that don't have mac and
cheese with Sunday dinner. You know, I like it cheesy, but I liked my noodles seasoned. I don't want no bland ass mac and cheese. And don't put nothing weird in my mac. - And right now we're going
start with some noodle dough. - Yeah, we're making it from scratch. - So we're just going to
be preparing our dough. I've always wanted to make pasta. Do you know why?
- Why? - Matt always makes homemade pasta. - [Narrator] All right, bakers. 30 minutes on the clock
in three, two, one. Go time.
(bell rings) - All right, here we go. Ah, I'm going to go for
the tipo zero zero pasta. (lid clatters)
Huh! I just saved my life.
- Almost shattered some glass right off the bat. - The tipo zero zero,
Ned loves this stuff. - We're not just making
any mac and cheese. We're making gourmet mac
and cheese experiences. - That's right, today
I'm going to be making a pork belly and pineapple mac and cheese. We're trying to savor the winter. And since mac and cheese
is already savory, we're going to make a more savory. How? Pork belly. Really, what I wanted to do was pastor. So I thought pork belly
is a good, fast pork that I can make that has a
lot of flavor, a lot of fat. So we're gonna try and
get some citrus flavors into the pork belly, and
maybe some pineapple, so it has that tinge sweetness. - I am also taking Mexican
influences for my vision. - [Keith] What are you doing? - I'm making huevos mac-cheesos. - That's hilarious. - Huevos rancheros inspired
mac and cheese dish. Huevos rancheros is one of
my favorite breakfast items. Little bits of tortilla chips, jalapenos, onions, black beans. And it's going to be served with a delicious fried egg on top. I got a target on my back. I wrote a cookbook. But none of these challenges
are recipes in the cookbook. Over 80 other great recipes,
datenightcookbook.com. It's great for holiday gifts. - What's your biggest
critique about mac and cheese? Ugh, I wish I could eat it for every meal. Now you can. Introducing the mac and cheese waffle. Here's my plan. I'm going to make Mac and cheese. I assume the noodles are going
to look like poopoo, though. So, then I'm going to mix
it up and waffle press it. Boom, cover up all my mistakes. - Do you know what I'm doing? - What? - I'm making mac and cheese balls. - Ooh, mac and cheese balls.
- Like deep fried. - That's fun, that's really
like cool and normal. I thought you were gonna do
something weird, that's great. - Well, the balls will have balls, and they'll be shaped like balls. There'll be balls in the balls. - What, like boba? - This summer 2021, I
had a wonderful episode in the donuts, that I actually won, dedicated to the boobays. I said, I would love to
make mac and cheese balls. But what should go into
those mac and cheese balls? Balls.
(laughs) I'm going to try and make a really delicious mac and cheese ball by incorporating rocky
mountain oysters in it. In a less slang term, are bull testicles. (jazzy music) - Today, we're going
to make some Southern, a lobster mac and cheese. I love mac and cheese. Who don't like mac and cheese, right? Handmade noodles, that's
fine if that's your get down, but Bludso's, we a barbecue restaurant. We're not really a
pasta making restaurant. We got to make too much low and slow, and we just try to buy
the best brand of noodles we can get, and we don't do it in house. - Basically, you can
make pasta with just-- - Just flour.
- Just flour and water. But I'm making an egg pasta,
because I like egg pasta. - Feels like I need another egg. It doesn't feel wet enough. Wow, you made yours look
good with only three eggs? I think I used more flour. - Yeah, I used a lot less
flour than you, I think. - I think this is too hard. Is that 'cause I over-kneaded
it or under-kneaded it? - Just had more water. - I didn't want that piece, it was bad. - [Narrator] 15 minutes. - 15 (beep) minutes? That's not enough time. - This one's done. Now we're going to make a water dough. Wow, we have a sifter over here. - Add more of the flour around it. You know, don't abuse, love it. Massage it. - It doesn't look doughy yet. It's got to get together. Maybe I should pour some water in. - Are you mixing eggs and water? - Yeah. - Oh no. - I don't know. What's the difference? Okay, that's good. - [Narrator] Five minutes. - Okay guys, the reason I'm
taking this more seriously than other episodes at this stage is because I have an ingredient that I don't know is going to be well received. So I'm trying to make everything
around it taste sublime. Foreshadowing. - Hey! Wait, wait. - [Narrator] 30 seconds. - 30 seconds, wrap it in the plastic. Where's the plastic? - Got to get that plastic wrap. Got to get the plastic wrap. - Over there.
- Let's wrap it. - 30 seconds, Eugene,
we gotta wrap this up. And be careful, it's slippery over there. - Come on, come on, let me back in there. (laughs) - How is it so strong
and other times so weak? - How do we do this? - It's so, it's not, it's the plastic wrap.
- Three, two, one. Hands up, bakers. (objects clatter) - Got completely out of the plastic wrap, and now it's on the floor. Oh no!
- Oh no! - Did we clean the floor beforehand? - Did we do we wash the
floor with soap and water? - [Zach] Rachel, are
you going to allow this? Is this even right?
- Zest off the dirt. Zest off the dirt. - [Narrator] The dough has been resting, but now the guys will make the noodles. But first, some news for Ned. - Huh, what? What do you mean? - What? - Why?
- Why? (murmuring) Oh no, oh no. This is bullshit. I was not told this would be a factor. (beep) Yeah, 'cause I'm from Florida. (percussive sting)
- Yeah. (laughs) - Whatever, I didn't want
to use this one anyways. It's mushy and bad. We're back, our doughs have been rested. I just got some bullshit news, it's fine. This was my Christmas present this year. - What?
- This is a pasta extruder. You see that, you see that? Let's get a close up. Let's get a close up. Made in Italy. - Oh, made in Italy. - Just like me.
- Just like you. - Just kidding, I was
born in Jacksonville. - So here we have bucatini,
rigatoni, small macaroni, fusilli, spagette, and large macaroni. - Well, there's going to be a lot of other stuff going on in my dish, so I want to keep my pasta pretty simple. I'm gonna go small macaroni. - I'm going to go for big tubes. - Let's see what happens. (suspenseful music) Oh, it literally is just stuck in the top. Here we go! Oh, it's happening. Oh, it's really slow. Come on. - Oh! There they come. There they come! Holy cow, macaronis. - You guys, it's macaroni. (laughs) - [Keith] This is incredible. - You ever used these machines before? - No, this is my first time, can you tell? - They are fun, I like these. - It's a blast. - Oh my god. This is just adult Play-Doh machine. - [Ned] Yeah. - This is amazing. - Homemade pasta's awesome. - Oh my god, I'm all out of pasta dough. Come on, we gotta get more. There's gotta be more in there. - I'm actually, I have so much that I'm able to do quality control here. I'm kind of going through... - Wait, did you say Zach's
doing quality control? - Yeah, I'm kind of taking the rejects and tossing them aside.
- Wow. - I've got four pans right now. You know, it's a shame. I don't think I'm going to need all this. - This is my fourth pan. So we're both doing four pans. - Four pans. - I wonder how much Ned and Keith have. Do you think they made as much as this? - Probably. I mean. - Ned knows what he's doing. - Yeah. - Ugh.
(thunder cracking) What have I done? What have I done? Why did I throw it on the floor? It's not making anymore. It's all tapped out. - Just gummed in? - I should've made more dough. - Should've made more dough. - Should've made more dough. Can't feed a family of four like this. - I think you have enough, because you're going
to put it on a tostada. You don't want too many carbohydrates. - I don't have enough. - Maybe they'll plump. - Maybe a little pump. - Maybe they'll plump.
- Maybe they'll plump. - Maybe they'll plump.
- Maybe they'll plump. - I hope mine don't plump. (festive music) - Yeah!
- Woo! - Our pasta is drying and now we've got one hour to get ready for tomorrow. We only have 45 minutes tomorrow. So we have to do
everything tonight to prep, because it's going to get hot and spicy. - I'm making a bacon and a cheese sauce. What about you?
- Balls! (laughs) - We're going to prep our sauce. We're going to prep our protein. My proteins are beans. - I'm making some pork belly. We're going to have some
pork belly and onions as the base of the cheese sauce. We'll probably take the pork belly out. But, you know, we're going
to like render the fat. - I think we should cook our pasta. Aren't you doing a waffle? - I am doing a waffle. - And I'm doing balls. So I think that, imagine putting fresh mac and cheese tomorrow
onto a waffle iron, as opposed to refrigerated mac and cheese. - Mm, cold mac and cheese. - Because it's going to
hold its shape better. - We should do it all.
- Yeah. And then tomorrow focus on
the waffling and the frying. - That's a great plan. - I know that balls, they require more massaging and cooking and boiling, because they are naturally tough. All right, so these are the balls. Whoa, it's heavy. Here, feel that. - Holy shit, that's a lot of balls. - All right, so these are bull testicles. (gagged laugh) - Oh, that's disgusting. - These are really big, so... - Ball down!
- Guys, I'm so sorry. I dropped a ball. - Right now, me and Paula
about to start our roux. A roux is like a gravy, but this is your first start right here to great mac and cheese. Whatever your roux tastes
like, that's exactly what your mac and cheese
is going to taste like. So all I start is with butter. We've already put a light smoke on our lobster, got them seasoned up. - Yeah, we're getting some pork belly, and we're going to just
cook it on high heat, get some nice browning,
start to weaken the fat. Then we're going to take it out. We're going to soak it in some
spices, some pineapple juice. Trying to make something pastor-esque. - I was told that I couldn't do pork because everyone else
was already doing pork. And I was like, that's
'cause it's so delicious. - Yeah, I wanted to do pastor, and I was told I couldn't
do an eight hour roast. - You win some, you lose some.
- We'll have our bullshit we're fighting.
- We all have our shit. - I'm going to work with
two balls because... - 'Cause it's hilarious. - You just got to get this outer film off. Oh, I can just peel it, almost like... Look, I can just peel the balls. Wow, now my nails finally come in handy. (laughs) Acrylics are great for ball peeling. - So I like to put a couple of shells in my water with my noodles. And now I'm putting my
lobster tails in here. And I just like to put, like I said, you build flavors, layers of flavor. In there they're going to cook the rest of the way in the mac and cheese, so. But this is where your first flavor starts right here, is getting this. - Right now, I'm cooking up some bacon, and then I'm going to make a cheese sauce. - All right, so I've de-skinned my balls. - Hell yeah. - So my goal is to try to make these as appetizing as possible, even before I add them
to the mac and cheese. Traditionally, you usually deep fry them. Which, I'm deep frying my
whole mac and cheese ball. This is going to be part
of the mac and cheese. I'm gonna dunk my balls in the water. - You're boiling balls. - Boiling them so they
get as tender as possible. - Ahh. - So for my cheese blend, I want it to be mostly cheddar, 'cause
that's kind of classic and it'll evoke mac and cheese. But I want a good amount
of cotija and queso fresco. - And to me, what makes a
good macaroni and cheese is the right flavors of cheese. We use a variety here. And we use some aged cheddar,
we got a Monterey Jack. We got some good melting cheeses. All cheeses don't melt good. - I'm just gonna use the fancy cheeses that my sisters make mac and cheese with. I'm just gonna prep this
while my balls cook. - Yeah. - And Paula's chunking the lobster for me. Now I'm layering my flavors
for my roux right now. Putting about two cups of
flour, ground black pepper, little paprika, just a little
pinch of a cayenne pepper, a little seasoning salt. I'm gonna add about two
cups of milk just to start. And another thing with a
roux, you have to stir it. You have to stir it. You have to keep stirring it. - Oh, (beep) yeah. This bacon's getting brown. This bacon's getting brown. - I love making fajitas. So I'm kind of doing a fajita blend. - Look it, that's beautiful.
- Doesn't that look cute? Doesn't that look cute? - It does look cute. It looks beautiful. - Now I got to make my cheese sauce. Feel like I need more butter. More butter more milk, more everything. Oh, and of course, my secret ingredient. Get that bacon grease in there. - Check on my balls. Smells kind of like a clams. That's what balls smell like. They smell like clams, which also is not an attractive way
to describe a protein. Right?
(coughs) Just like clams. - Those balls are clammy. - I just want to make sure they're soft. - [Narrator] 30 minutes. - So I've got my melted butter. I'm going to saute the
garlic in the melted butter, really infuse that. I've got my spice blend here. I'm about to mix it up. Then I'm going to add all of my cheeses and a little bit of milk. - I'm juicing limes. We're getting a nice little citrus bath. Tajin in, I got some coriander. Okay, our bacon is getting pretty close. I mean, it it looking incredible. Beautiful, beautiful. - We're putting in some
smoked paprika, some pepper. And of course, I'm gonna put some Keith's burger sauce, you know? 'Cause good friends plug friends. - My cheese is very clumpy. Maybe that's from the queso fresco. Maybe this is why there aren't any Mexican cheese mac and cheeses. Just looks like mushy oatmeal. Oh, no. - And you see already how's
it's thickening it up? And that's exactly what you want. And it's letting you
know that you're going to need a little, way more milk in there. And once again, you
see how that lumped up. You got to continue to stir. - Should I start over? Should I just make it all cheddar and then add a little crumble
of queso fresco on top? All right, I'm making a second batch. I'm worried about the texture. - So I boiled them to soften them up. They have a very unique
almost eraser tip feel. - Oh my god, you know those little racers that you would get, like the cool Japanese erasers that some kids had in school? - Yeah, they feel a lot like like those. - Ah, those were so dope. I (beep) loved those. - Ah yes, this is pastor. This is pork belly pastor. I'm so excited about it. Even the sauce that it's in
worked well with the cheese. I'm not sure how I could incorporate that, but we might, I don't know how. - Well, I'm very literally
trying to make the protein, my balls, taste as delicious as possible. 'Cause I don't want them getting a bite and saying like that weird. So I'm going to just douse it in butter and garlic and onion and spices. And hopefully it's just like delightful little meat nuggets that
they say, what is that? All right, guys, I'm going to check the consistency and flavor of my ball. - Shit, I was going to
put egg in my sauce. (laughs) - What do you think? - So there's a reason we're not serving balls
across this country. This is delicious traditional flavors I've doused my testicles in, and they still taste both like nothing and everything in a
basement at the same time. You'll be like, yeah, the flavor on the outside is good, but... Do you know what I'm talking,
do you know what I mean? There's like no way to
make the consistency... It's like eraser. - Have you ever got a splash
of bong water in your mouth? It kind of has that
little bit of after taste. - Yeah, it's got basement flavor. - Yeah. - Oh, I guess it is part of the basement. (percussive sting) - Okay, so I have my pork fat in here. I also added just a little bit of butter. Now that it's all melted, I'm going to put it in
just a little bit of flour, make something of a roux
so that my different cheeses hopefully will work together. - I kind of abandoned
the different cheese plan and I'm making a whole second sauce. Luckily I had an extra stick of butter. I had an extra garlic clove, all prepped. I don't know, this one's
getting a lot more oil if I'm using just cheddar. That's kind of also unexpected. Yeah, this doesn't look great, either. - If your fire's too hot or too cold, or too low, it will cause separation. You have to have a medium fire, especially when you put
the cheese on there. The fire has to be mellow. You're not boiling the cheese. If you start boiling it,
it's going to separate. - I just poured my cheese sauce out, revealing I burned the bottom of the pan. I don't have time to go back. I just need to hope and
pray that it tastes fine. - [Narrator] 15 minutes. - 15 minutes, we don't
have time for two batches. Now, how long do you think you're going to need for your pasta? - Store-bought you would do anywhere from eight to 11 minutes, for al dente.
- Yeah, so that's like all the time we have. - Oh god. - Oh bro, what's happening? - Oh god, it's taco Tuesday. I'm just drying as soap up all the grease from my cheese mixture, like it's the top of a pizza at a bad pizza place. Actually, that's way better. Still kind of mealy, so I'll probably just use the other one. - [Narrator] Five minutes. - Five minutes, okay. All right, it's been in
there for 10 minutes. - I'm gonna put my balls in the cheese, just cause they'll be easier
to pour over the pasta. I'm going to try my ball again. (laughs) (coughs) If I don't get last place in this episode, it'll be a miracle, because... That is, that is not a flavor
that's easy to work with. - All right, look at
all this beautiful pork. Everything else we can tweak tomorrow. And I think the judges
are going to like it. I'm mostly excited to feed Kevin Bludso, because I have eaten his
food at so many times. He's amazing. If I can impress him, I'll feel amazing. I'll feel really good. - [Narrator] One minute left. - All right, I'm just going to strain it. Hopefully it's cooked enough. - All right, I think I'm done here. So I'm going to go
ahead and turn this off. We're going to have to
reheat it again tomorrow, and I don't want to burn the cheese. - That's a lot of pasta. - Look at all my pasta, so much pasta. - Adding the cheese and the balls. - Oh yeah, that's mac and cheese. Macaroni in the pot. - Three, two, one.
- The hell was that? - [Narrator] Hands up, bakers. - [Rachel] Times up, Zach. - We did it! - We did it, Ned. - Look at my cheese. It's all one piece of cheese. - Huh.
- Huh. Well, we want to serve it hot. (laughs)
- Yeah. - We're gonna want to serve that hot. (festive music) - [Narrator] It is day
two in the Try kitchen. The guys will have 45 minutes
to put everything together and finish their mac and cheese. - Ah, I've got a lot to do. I'm going to make my waffles. I want to make another sauce, so I have a cheese sauce to dip it in. And I gotta make more bacon,
'cause I don't have enough. - Guys, it's just balls
to the wall right now. So I think it was smart that we pre-made this and now it's cold. I need to make pairs for each judge. So I'm going to be dredging
and coating mine in panko. - Okay, so what I need to do
are three different things. One, heat up the cheese. Two, heat up the pork. And three, heat up the noodles. I want them all to be in different pans, and then I'll combine them
at the very end for serving. - Heating up some butter. I'm going to start by sauteing
my onions and peppers. Now here goes my spice blend. I want to go easy on all these toppings, 'cause I don't want it to be like the pasta is an afterthought. - When I looked at my
mac and cheese yesterday, I would say the bacon ratio was off. So I want to make a little bit more here. I used up all of my cheese
sauce in making my mac and cheese, and I'm afraid that it ain't going to be cheesy enough. So we need more cheese. - So we got some cold, blocky cheese. We're just wanting to heat it up. But I don't want to heat up too fast. And now they're all combined, so just gotta hope that they all melt beautifully and stay that way. - Oh no, Rachel.
- What happened? - You're going to force
me to measure something. I want everyone to have
the same pair of balls. Oh god, what's happening to me? Okay, I'm going to measure this. - I'm really glad, Eugene, that you had the idea to
cook some of this yesterday. - Right? It's easier to form them. - Boil, b-b-b-boil, baby. - How much time do we got? 38 minutes, okay.
- Oh my god. - 38 minutes, and my
water isn't even boiling. - Guys, look at that. Even has almost like the irregular surface texture of a ball. I wonder if my mom's proud of me. Sometimes she watches these
videos and she's like, Eugene. - So now I put a little butter
in here on my hot noodles, just to moisten them up a little bit. And I always liked the noodles to be hot when I put the cheese in there. The cheese sauce is thick, so it'll melt a little bit more, and it'll just cook. - So you're gonna deep fry those? - Yeah. - Are you nervous that you're not going to be able to cook the middle? - No, the middle's already cooked. - Oh. - Because, remember?
We cooked it yesterday. I'm more afraid that the judges won't enjoy the taste of the testes. - Mac and cheese is good just how it is. So if you're going to add something to it, just making sure you enhancing
it and not messing it up. That's the way I look at it. But do your thing. - I mean, hey, but deep frying
stuff makes it delicious. - The outside, at least. - All right, that's looking pretty good. I'm going to add some beans. That is a beautiful scramble, I like that. I like my ratio here.
- That looks beautiful. - So that's pretty much done, all right. I'll just kind of mix that in at the end. - You know what this
needs, some bacon grease. Cheese sauce, done. - I'm gonna make the Try Guys balls first. - Things are happening. - Coat it, coat it, nice. Here we go. Oh, my balls are too big. (percussive sting) I'm just going to keep
rolling my balls around. So I think after these first balls, I'm going to put two balls in at once. Well actually, I kind of
like playing with one ball. Guys, I'm so sorry for
all these ball puns. It's really hard not to. - [Narrator] 30 minutes. - Water's still not boiled. - Water's not boiling. - Can't cook pasta without hot water. Can't cook no pasta without no hot water. - I'll try and add some extra milk. 'Cause I just think if
this is how it ends up, it's going to be too chalky. - Not too much flour, Ned. - Not too much flour?
- Not too much flour. - Okay, okay, I'm done, I'm done. I need you to help me. - So you're just going
to stir it constantly. Honestly, take some chunks of cheese and put it in right now to cool it down, start melting that
around, move that around. - Okay. - All right, first ball, done. Look at that. It's beautiful. Does that not look just like a giant ball? - Okay, the mac and cheese has coagulated into what I would say is
an unpleasant texture. Similar to Eugene, I've got a nice mound of mac and cheese here. Here we fricking go. (food sizzles) - Yeah, you got it, Zach. - More flour now, or is it okay? - I don't know, I can't
see what you're doing. I'm having my own problems now. - Oh, okay, let me see if I can help you. - See, it's separated because-- - It looks like polenta.
- I know! - You need a paper towel. - No, no, no, no. - You have to stir, you have to stir. If you let it sit, it's going to separate. If you don't have the right temperature, it's going to separate. And the key to that I'm
telling you is the cold milk. Do not put warm milk. When you go warm milk on top of a roux, it can't break through it. When it's cold, it breaks
all the way through it, like putting out a fire. - It was perfect yesterday. Why did we have to cool it? Why can't we just serve
it when it looks good? Everything was going (beep) great. Why did this (beep) happen? Why did this (beep) happen? It was perfect yesterday! It was (beep) perfect, what happened? Why did we have to refrigerate it? Why couldn't we just leave it? Why couldn't we just serve it? Just bring the judges in,
have them come to my table. I'll scoop them out some cheese. Look, it looks terrible. - Or maybe Keith, you need to start over, like what I'm doing.
- I don't. I don't have time to start over. - How much time do we have? And my water's still not boiled? - Five, four, three, two, one, kick it. (vocalizes) Hell yes. Woo, that's a waffle, baby. I mean, they're beautiful looking. - Thank you. And I got them to ball. Like, look at them next to each other. There's no mistaking what I'm going for. - How did this happen? - Wait, which one was this? - How did this happen? How did this (beep) happen? - I had two cheeses, but I
only received one cheese. They were combined next to each other? (laughs incredulously) - That wasn't his vision. - Why were they next to each other? No, I went through the
whole thing to remake it. What happened to my cheddar? Do we have some more cheddar? - That's a (beep). - That looks great, Zach.
- Mac and cheese waffle. Dude, thank goodness we
cooked our pasta yesterday. - Can you imagine?
- Can you imagine the stress right now? Trying to boil your pasta today? - My pasta water is still not boiled. So I'm going to start making eggs. - I'm hecking going for it. I know this will lower the
temperature of the water a bit. - [Narrator] 15 minutes. - My pasta water's not boiling yet! What am I supposed to do? - I don't know. What if you boiled lots of small pots of water and poured it in? - Oh, these balls. These balls are so big. I just have to take them out. (beep), they're so big. - I just dumped it. I dumped it, I dumped it. - I don't know how that's
going to be appetizing. That pork has gotten
fully un-good-looking. - Is this correct? No. But is it awesome? Hell yeah. - You try a little bit? Oh wait, you can't.
- Nah. - Do you want me to test for you? - No, just move forward. - Taste, if you don't
taste, you don't know if it's too salty or under seasoned. I never seen but one chef in my life that doesn't taste, and I hang out with him sometime and he's dresses just the way his food tastes, bland. - I'm going to tell you what, I think that tasting food midway is cheating. - Me too, yeah. Like, why would a chef ever do that? - Exactly. - It's like, then they
know what it tastes like. And then the diners are like,
of course it tastes good. You know it tastes good. - This is Without A Recipe. - Better? - I tasted it and I feel
better because it tastes good. - It's a lot better. It looks a lot better. When I look at it now,
it looks so much better. I don't know what happened,
but it got better. - It's everything that you want. It's cheesy, it's rich. And now you add in some lobster to it. Who don't like lobster? Who don't like lobster mac? Come on. I like to put parsley
on it just for the look. And that's going in the oven. 400 for about 15 minutes or
until the top gets melded. And this is a finished Bludso's
lobster mac and cheese. (upbeat music) - [Narrator] 10 minutes. - Gonna try and do surgery on my egg here. - Wow, look at that, beautiful. - So these are for the judges. Question now, which, which are
the prettiest pairs of balls? - I don't think I'm
going to have enough time to make this extra cheese sauce, dude. I'm just going to have to make
work what I got over here. I hope it's enough. - Two more minutes of boiling
are all we can afford. - And that seven minutes of cooking. Think it has to be done,
because I need time. - Don't burn those hands. Watch your face with the steam. Don't burn your face. - Finally, it's boiling. - [Narrator] Five minutes. - Where's the maple syrup? I need the maple syrup. - I can't see what I'm doing. I hope that I got 'em in. I can't see anything. - Oh (beep), that's hot. I just gotta trust that
I did these ratios right. - Ow! Stir it around, go to town. A boot-scoot boogie. - Oh no, oh no! Okay, all right, that's fine. We have this waffle, this waffle's great. It's good enough. - Amazing? No. Pretty good? Yeah. - Ahh! My hands are too slippery. - Think we're done, Eugene. I think we did it. Ow, (beep), ow, it was some bacon grease. - [Narrator] Three, two, one. Hands up, bakers. - [Rachel] Ned, you too!
- Ah. (laughs) (dramatic music) - Today, we'll be judging
on taste, creativity, presentation, and is it mac and cheese? - Ro, do you think that
we made our pasta today? - Did you?
- We made our pasta, Ro. (gasps) - You did? - We made noodles. - So we're about to offend
the South and Italy. - Ah, at the same time. - At the same time, one fell swoop. - Southern Italy's really upset. (laughs) - Judges, mac and cheese, a perfect food. Could I get a hell yeah? - Hell yeah.
- Hell yeah. - The only problem, uh, I wish I could eat it for every single meal. What's that? Now you can. Introducing mac and cheese for breakfast, the mac and cheese waffle. - Ohh.
- Ohh. - So we've got a homemade mac and cheese. We've got some bacon in there, an important part of any breakfast. And you've got dipping sauce there, if you want to, you know. I wanted to let you
guys do it how you want. - I'm excited because it's
breakfast, so you got me there. - Oh, the waffle was
made out of the noodle? - The waffle is noodles. - Oh, you didn't say that. - My bad. - That's creative.
- That's creative as hell. - Don't leave points on the board. - So let me tell you what I did. I made a mac and cheese, okay. I made a homemade sauce. And then I mixed it all together, let it chill overnight, turned it into discs, waffle pressed it. - Okay, I'm gonna do half and half. I'm gonna try this. - I'm so (beep) nervous. This feels high stakes. - Oh, wow. It's kind of odd with the maple syrup. It's a little odd. - I personally wouldn't put that on there. - Yeah.
- That was your choice. - That's not good to
tell me after the fact. - Bruh, that is a tasty waffle. (gong rings)
Seriously, I like it. I mean, I really can taste a waffle and mac and cheese in it,
and I really enjoyed it. It could have just had maybe
just a little bit more spice, but I really think
that's the tasty waffle. For the first time ever
having mac and cheese for breakfast, I think
you did, and I'm really impressed with the
creativity that you did. - I'm gonna honest with you, I actually like the syrup on it. - Yeah?
- I did. - Me too. - I want to eat the rest of
it, so I'm not going to lie. With the syrup is good.
- You're welcome to. - It's good, it's good.
- Keep going. - I probably would've put
hot sauce all over it, 'cause I like a spicy breakfast. But I can taste the mac and the cheese. - Hot dog. - Zach, I'm surprised. - I was honestly scared when your was the first one out the gate,
but you set the tone. - You did. - Judges, is this mac and cheese? - It is.
- It is. I would have to say yes.
- With a twist. - This needs to be on a
brunch menu, I would order it. - Wow.
- Wow, Zach. - Nice job, Zach. - You guys wanna try it? - I definitely want to try it, yeah.
- Yeah, now I do. - I think the bacon fat was good. 'Cause you added bacon fat on top. - Oh yeah, I didn't tell you, I put bacon fat into the cheese sauce. - [Kevin] You can't lose with that. - Judges, thank you so much. - Thank you.
- You're welcome. - [Kevin] Way to start it off. - Hello, judges. One of my favorite breakfast
foods is huevos rancheros. - Ooh.
- Mmm. - A little egg on tortilla with some beans, onions, some veggies. I wanted to bring you that flavor. I proudly present you huevos mac-cheesos. (upbeat music) - Looks like a cocktail.
- That's brunch. - It's a mactail.
- Wow! - The presentation is really nice. - Thank you.
- This is really pretty. - Yes, yes, yes, yes. - Tortilla round with an egg
on top, a little hot sauce, cilantro, a lime, if you want it. And then the Mac and cheese itself has lots of fajita spices,
lots of Mexican spices. - What's all in the mac? Beans.. - Yeah, beans, onions, vegetables. - God, I hate how quiet
they are when they eat. - I know. - I'm also not mad at this dish either. Because I do like that breakfast, 'cause breakfast has a little
bit of sweet heat that I like. - See, I'm upset.
- Upset? - I fully came here ready
to make fun these things, be mean.
- Yeah. - Mm-hmm.
- But it's good. (gong rings) It's good, why are they so good? Every episode I watched,
it was bad things. I wanted bad things, and
they're great right now. - We're so sorry. - Not gonna lie, the flavor is incredible. - Flavors are really good. - Flavor is incredible. I've tasted everything you named. - I like the taste, I like the spice. I like spicier breakfasts, so this is something right up my alley. I've never had this combo before. - The creativity is off
the chain, real talk. I'm like you, I love
huevos rancheros all day. Only thing I have a problem with, you got so much going on. It still kind of gets away from just tasting like mac and cheese. What's your name again? - I'm Ned.
- What up, Ned? For no recipe and all that, this is good. If I went someplace else,
if it wasn't a competition and I got this, I would
give it 100, 'cause it is. But just like I said,
it just got a little. And when I first got it, I was like, "Shit, Ned through, 'cause he
got raisins in it and shit." (laughs) But I'm glad those was beans. - No, no, no, black beans.
- I thought it was raisins. But good job, bruh. - Judges, is it mac and cheese? - That's a good question, 'cause it is but it ain't. - But it ain't.
- It ain't, but it is. - So, I'ma go no. - Oh, okay.
- I'm gonna go no. - Well, all right. - I'm gonna go no. - And as much as I love
this, I have to agree. I don't think it's mac and
cheese, but it was mac and great. - It was good, it was really good. - It was great. - It was good, but like I
said from point, it just, it just kinda got away
from mac and cheese. - Ned, there's there's macaroni noodles and there's cheese inside here, but this is what's interesting. If I was blindfolded and I took a bite, one, it's delicious, but I don't think I would guess that it was mac and cheese. So that's what's really
messing with my mind, because it just tastes
like a delicious breakfast. - So you're saying it
needs to be more basic. - You came dressed up to the party. - I know, it's kinda the opposite of Zach. - So you're saying if I had just made plain mac and cheese.
- Zach's had wanted a little bit more spice. - Sometimes you can be too good. - Yeah, it's too good.
- Wow, wow. It's too good.
- What I will say, it's good. - You might be too over talented for this. - It's a pajama party and
you came on with a tuxedo. - Wow, wow. - Oh my god, that's
way better than Zach's. - That's a third time today. - I don't know what you
guys are talking about. - But it tastes like a fancy pasta. - Ooh, that's good, Ned. - Thank you, judges. - Thank you.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Yummy. - Judges, what do these look like? - Chicken fried baked potato. - Yes, dinosaur, fried dinosaur egg. - Friend blimp to me. - Mm-hmm, think a little more anatomical. - Huge fried cheese ball. - That's right, mac and cheese balls. Guess what's inside of them? - Mac and cheese?
- Mac and cheese? - And...
- Balls? - Balls, bull testicles. - Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. - Shaped to look like a bull's balls. (laughs) - Like, wait a minute.
- That's right. Like the testicle of a
bull is inside the ball? - I grabbed life by the
balls, and gave it to you. - Never had balls in my mouth. (laughs) Not once in my life.
- Not once. - Me neither. - So I did a panko crust, deep fried it. Inside, you'll find delicious homemade mac and cheese with
gruyere, sharp cheddar. And I tried to saute and
boil those balls down so they didn't have, you
know, ball consistency. And you know, you have
some paprika, some cayenne, there's some onion,
some garlic, some herbs. Yeah, I want to make
sure that you knew that when you ate my balls, you
knew that there were balls. - Eugene, I love you, and I don't ever want
you to say that to me. - Presentation's not bad. - Yeah, it's not bad. - I'm not mad, I love the plate. - Oh. - I mean, it looks nice on the inside. - Like, it looks good
until, you know it's balls. The smell.... - The smell is a little.
- Let me smell it. - Eugene's nuts. - Smells a little ballsy. - It almost smells like football practice. - Another ball. - Try not to get upset,
try not to get too testy. (laughs) - It's a tough, it's a tough,
tough meat to work with. Did it for the pun, did
it mainly for the pun. - I would say it's very creative, okay? I'm not disappointed in
the creative department. I like the crunchiness,
I like things fried. The taste is odd, and I can't
quite put my finger on it. I'm going to think
about a little bit more. The protein, I don't know
if that's what's making it (burps)
taste odd. - Was that a burp? Did you burp? - Maybe something's trying to come up. No, we're fine.
- The balls. - It's just really not sitting good. Don't know what it is,
but it's just kind of not. - It's the balls. - It's like I can't put my mouth
on it, and I don't want to. (percussive sting) - I couldn't really taste the balls. Thank God, you know, I know they in there. Clearly he was going with some type of locker room feel, or football team, 'cause the noodles was tough
as hell, like a defense. So, you know, but you
said you came here mad, but you must be mad at the
seasoning or something. 'Cause I don't already taste no seasoning in here and nothing like that. - For me, I turned to the side, 'cause I wanted to turn my back on it. Unlike Kev, I tasted the balls. Didn't like it, didn't like it. It was a taste I'm unfamiliar with, and I don't ever want to
get familiar with it again. But, creativity.
- Creativity is great. - I love the creativity, I love the plate. I like the little garnish. - Judges, is this macaroni and cheese? - I would say it's "mac and rooni," 'cause it was rude to serve. (laughs) - It is mac and cheese, it is. I just don't want it. - There's somewhere, somebody
that will appreciate this. - Someone without the sense of taste. - Or smell.
- Or smell. - So someone with, should I say it? COVID.
(laughs) - And that, my friends, is the
lesson we've come here today. Please get vaccinated. Otherwise you'll be eating balls for the rest of your life. Thank you. - It was just the smell. That smell, that smell was tough. - It's so hard to--
- The smell. - Can I just vouch for
my friend here real quick and say that the balls were insane, and the fact that he got this
much flavor out and back in, like he really worked with that meat. He beat that meat like crazy. - It's not so bad. - That scares me, Keith. - It's the mustache. (laughs) - Judges, we've gone a lot of places. And now that Eugene has
taken you to pasture, I'd like to take you to pastor. And I love pastor. You know, it's, it's got that citrusy, pineapple, spicy attitude. So this is my pork belly
pastor mac and cheese. The look is, is, you know. - Yeah, I agree.
- Yeah. - It looks like something from the 50s. - Yeah.
- Yeah, kinda. - Like when the mama
bird feeds the baby bird and then the baby bird just goes bleh. - Ooh.
(laughs) - So we have gruyere.
- Okay. - Pepper jack.
- Mm-hmm. - And fontina. Then we also have some hatch
chilies in there as well, just to give it a little
bit more spice and acidity. - Oh, wow. - We're friends, right? - Are we? - I don't know.
- I hope so. - Interesting. - I've never had something like this. - Yeah, mm-hmm. - Keith, these are giving me bad breath. This is, this dish is... - The reason I asked if
we were friends is because I don't know if I would
serve my friend this. - Really? - It tastes, it tastes like free lunch. (retches) - Don't die. - I threw up.
- Oh, you threw up? - A little bit. - That's harsh, that's, you know. - Health department. - My body has this natural gage, where when I put things in there that aren't supposed to be in there, it tries to get out, you know? I've never had something like this, but these noodles are just very... They're very tough, they're very... - They're undercooked, I (beep) get it. - Yeah.
- I (beep) get it. - Yeah, it's kind of like--
- Okay, let's move on. Let's talk about the other things. - The worse thing you can do to pasta-- - But that's the main part of the dish. - I know that it's
(beep) up, let's move on. (laughs) Lets just move on. - Keith, I don't think it's-- - The horse is dead,
the horse is a skeleton. - Okay.
- Let's move on, and find a new horse to beat. - Can we talk about presentation? - I would love that. - Okay.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Now that I had it, the
presentation was better. - Yeah.
- Yes. - Thank you so much. - I mean, if I was going
to have mac and cheese in a bathtub, in a 1978
bathtub, you did a good job. I really wouldn't taste that pork belly. Oh my god. (laughs) I mean it's real citrusy, whatever you put in it really totally throws it off. When you bite both of
that, that's all you get. You don't really taste the mac. But you know, I actually think that you chose some good cheeses with your mac. I think your noodles were, to
me, they was flavored good. But your noodles were
raw, they (beep) raw. - How about the creativity? What do we think about that? (laughs) - If this was a 1950s
competition, you nailed it. It's not that creative. - It's pastor. I wish you could have eaten it yesterday. Everything was so much better yesterday. And we had to put it in the fridge. - Is it mac and cheese? - It is mac and cheese. - It is mac and cheese. - Thank you so much, moving on, Cam? - It just isn't good mac and cheese. - I don't need that part,
let me hear you, Cam. - Uh, it's mac and cheese. - Thank you so much, bro. - It's mac and cheese, Keith. - Yeah, we did it. (applauds) - Huh. - Yeah, it tastes different
than it did yesterday. (laughs) Really changed. - I know what you're going through. Something morphed. - Well, I'm pretty disappointed in pretty much the whole thing. You know, this whole conversation. It's not really how I
saw it going in my head. I think the judges are going to like it. I'm mostly excited to feed Kevin Bludso. If I can impress him, I'll feel amazing. I'll feel really good. I feel bad. - Oh, do you, Keith? It's okay. - And thanks, I love
you all, and thank you. - Still friends?
- We love you, too. - I don't know, are you?
- It's not a family recipe, is it? - No, my family doesn't have recipes. - Good, 'cause if it is, I wouldn't speak to that person again. - I won't speak to myself ever again. (laughs) Thank you, judges. - Thank you, Keith. - Thank you, Keith. - Man, first I've just got
to give y'all kudos, man. It's hard to cook and have
somebody judge your food like we do and make jokes and all that. But all you guys got
a good sense of humor, and that's what I like about it. And then the fact that you
guys did this without a recipe, y'all give yourselves a hand, man. (applauds)
Seriously. - All right, so we have the responsibility of picking fourth place. You know, this is a competition. So someone must come last. But before I do that, I want to say that I am impressed by all of these. So someone must come last, and I must say that I have an acronym on my bracelet that says "God is the greatest." So, I'm sorry, Eugene,
evil doesn't win today. - Evil doesn't win today, Eugene. - We must give you fourth place. - Big four, hold your fours up. - Balls. (laughs) I made Kevin laugh, thank you, thank you. Well, it seems like we have a
Lord fearing table this time. Evil was thwarted, but it
will prevail this season. - What was it about it? - It might've been the balls, yeah. - The balls.
- Yeah, the balls. - It's just rude to serve a
lady balls and not warn her. - Yeah.
(laughs) - At least take her to dinner first. - Now, for third place. - Who could it be? - I just want to say that as an Italian who makes a lot of handmade pasta, I am really impressed that
you guys made handmade pasta. I know you've already heard it. It's echoing over here. You guys made a thick noodle, but I think with some
tweaks you could have a winning holiday season bake
at our house, I really do. I think you could have some
winning pasta with a few tweaks. So with third place, I'm
happy to announce, Keith. - Me? - You, it's you, Keith.
- Really? - You loved it? Ah, I'm so happy, thank you so much. I want to thank my family for really not having
any signature recipes. I want to thank everybody here for believing in me.
- My balls, my balls. - I want to thank Eugene's
balls for taking fourth for me. - They were really bad. - Really thought I was losing this one. I love you guys. Third place, third place feels good. - Yeah, we got you, Keith. - Third place feels good. Third place feels good. Woo! All right. - You and me.
- It's you and me. - This has never happened before. You and me.
- A Without A Recipe first? - I mean, you like
actually do cook and stuff, I'm just a...
- Yeah, I know. - I get to say who wins. First, let me say both
of them were excellent. You guys both did an excellent job. Both of you guys went totally
two different directions. Both of you guys had
great dishes, flavorful. The winner is, for the
holiday mac and cheese... Zach, you got it. (cheers) - I have conquered that
which hurts me the most! (beep) you, cheese, I am your master. Oh my God, thank you, judges, so much. Hey, if we want to put
that on the menu, I'm down. - Ooh yeah, let's not. - Holy shit, I can't... (laughs) - Well, this has been
another wonderful episode of Without A Recipe, holiday edition. Of course, the best holiday,
as we know, is one that is frightening, is one
that gets into your soul. And you might've thought
that balls was the lowest one could hang, but no, we're
going much lower this season. So you better stay tuned. Stay in your seats, because
the worst is yet to come. - Happy holidays from
us here in the Try Guys. - We'll see you next week.
- We'll see you next Saturday. (rock music) - [Narrator] Next week on Without
A Recipe, holiday edition. - We're finally cooking wieners today. We're doing it from scratch. - Oh no, I have an explosion, shit! - Oh, we gotta bust out the side. - Oh god, oh god! - It's either going to be your favorite or least favorite episode
of Without A Recipe. Can you hold my sausage? - [Keith] Uh-huh.
*Eugene put a quick trigger warning on this episode too so watch at your own risk
I actually felt bad for Keith on this one, because it seems as though the 2 day timing of this episode set him up for failure.
It made total sense for Zach and Eugene to precook their pasta so they could fry it/waffle press it on day 2. But for Ned and Keith, who wanted to make more traditional macs, NO ONE would precook their pasta the day before and reheating cheese sauce is a pain in the ass that most people would never put themselves through. If he didn't have to mess around so much with his cheese sauce, he would have had more time to play around with the water and get his pasta cooked. Also, his pork looked great on day one, but letting it sit in the fridge a) ruined the crisp texture he worked really hard to achieve and b) allowed the enzymes in the pineapple too much time to impact the texture and flavor of the meat.
I have made homemade mac for years, and I've never split the recipe up over 2 days. It's an afternoon process, even if you were making your own noodles. This didn't need to be a 2 day challenge, and I hope they think more about what's proper for the dish they're making in future episodes.
I adore Ned, but his cooking skills aren’t really the best ad for his cookbook! I can’t tell if the f-ups are purely for show, but once again I can’t stop thinking that he and Ariel got the cookbook deal because of the Try Guy fame, and not because they are brilliant cooks. How can I guy who’s written a cookbook not know what temperature he has to use to melt the cheese to avoid lumps or separation of the ingredients? He seriously lacks basic cooking knowledge!!! I don’t expect him to act like a professional cook, but I also don’t expect him to act like he’s attending cooking 101!
Keith continues to get screwed over & I can’t understand why they haven’t figured out this doesn’t need to be a 2 day thing.
If they just built the new office & know WAR is their biggest series, why not have a kitchen big enough for all 4 guys to cook and complete their meals at once.
I genuinely felt bad for Keith :(
The fact that Keith couldn’t get homemade noodles cooked in 45 minutes is telling how messed up their kitchen is.
I also wonder if the pineapple did something overnight.
Honestly I feel like if Eugene hadn't told them exactly what the meat was before they ate it, they wouldn't have psyched themselves out.
I laughed pretty hard at "IT'S AN ADULT PLAY-DOH MACHINE!"
I felt really bad for Keith but I was thrilled for Zach
Man! Go Zach! I don't think he's gotten that great of reviews in all of WAR history. He nailed it.
I feel bad for Keith as well. You can't really do a 2 -day thing when you homemake a sauce nor use a crispy meat product. It just doesn't work out. You can tell he really adores the Bludso guy too, so it's a shame.
I also feel the need to mention Ned.. I feel like, since he published the cookbook, he hasn't really had a great food output. I feel like he used to do really well before the cookbook plugs, coming 1st or 2nd most of the time, but now it's like yikes?
You can see he's no professional and it's not a good testament of someone's cookbook. I'm definitely not a chef, but I feel like a lot of the things he messes up on, is entry level/level 1 basics. Maybe he should have taken actual cooking classes before putting out a cookbook..
Kevin not knowing Ned's name, and then thinking he was the kinda guy to put RAISINS in mac & cheese was so freakin' funny!