Go to the Recipe: Ultra-Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese
How many steps can one add to making mac & cheese? You guys over thunk this one!
Brilliant!
But as a Dane unknown to US traditions … do you eat mac’n’cheese alone, a bowl and a fork as a great comfort dish, or do you in some way up vegetables and protein!
I have sodium citrate and would prefer not to buy the sodium hexametaphosphate for the 1.5 grams in the recipe. Would it work without this? Thanks in advance for any insight on this.
Agreed. Was just thinking of how many things to clean up. Follows in the same method of how folks are needed to change a light bulb. At Chef Steps, a lot of people and pans.
Yes! Mostly as a side or comfort meal, but all of the tings you mention are fair game. There are many recipes out there that have one adding proteins and veggies to the dish. As an aside, I had a Dane friend who worked for a major culinary school. He was reputed to be a master chef. He once gave me advice that I've never forgotten. "Give me good ingredients and a source of heat and leave to rest to me." He was an advocate for simplicity, which is why, perhaps, I'm critical of this recipe for what should be a simple dish to make. Soren passed in the early 2000's. I miss him dearly. Thank you for reminding me of him!
For what it's worth, all that I've ever used is sodium citrate. The term "melting salts" is a literary stretch. The salts aid in coagulation, i.e., binding. They do just the opposite of melting. Heat melts the cheese and when you heat hard cheeses they want to separate. The salt or salts keep that from happening. That said, I have no experience with sodium hexametaphosphate. I might try it some day if I can find additional uses for it, but to your point, there isn't enough In this recipe to make me want to buy it let alone break out a micro scale to measure it.
Made the Cheese sauce yesterday and finished off the Stovetop version for dinner today. Damn that was tasty. We used mozzarella and aged Gouda. Very simple to make and not difficult nor to many steps to complete.
Sorry for your loss, but nice to remember lost friends through happy memories.
And thank you for the details.
As a good geek and old time ChefSteps fan, I have no problems in complicating a dish to maximize perfection 😉
So the best cheese and ingrediens as a comfort meal, got it! Thanks 🥰
Will you have to wash a blender, a food processor, 2 pots and also take out your sous vide? Yes. Will it be worth it? Absolutely.
Did you ever get around to making the recipe only with sodium citrate? I have the same issue and I'm wondering if the sauce will not bind correctly if i don't have the sodium hexametaphosphate.
Why the 75C? Can I not just boil it? What will change? I am boiling it all the time, but I am not very happy with my results.
My problems with my version are two:
1. It solidifies after 5 minutes, and I hate that.
2. It is not a gel, and it does not stay on the pasta, that is perhaps why MC also added carrageenan iota. But for some reason when I try to add carrageenan iota, cheese sauce becomes gritty.
So perhaps the addition of SHMP solves this problem, because it makes for a firmer cheese.
I cannot find SHMP in Europe, so I will add STPP, which perhaps works, we will see.
But the first question remains, why 75C?
Thanks.
Will the cheese sauce withstand freezing? I was thinking of making several batches in vac bags and then using sous vide to reheat and add to fresh cooked pasta when needed.
Yes, the cheese sauce can be frozen separately. You also don''t necessarily need to store the blended sauce in vac bags. You could easily quart it up and freeze, then thaw and reheat in a pot before continuing.
Good luck!
wow…
From a Dane who have never before tried a quality versions and had only tried the stodgy gloopy Kraft-powder version. Used aged British cheddar and a young Gouda, and a very old parmigiano.
Damn, this was good! thanks!
Ps It’s 10 timers easier making the sauce in a Thermomix 😉
Hi Al,
Yes, the recipe would work decently well with sodium citrate alone, but depending on the cheese you use, it might be a little runnier, and just a touch less emulsified than a sauce with SHMP added. Why? SHMP is added here mostly to stabilize the emulsion and give the sauce high gloss. In isolation, it's a slower but stronger calcium chelator and raises pH more than sodium citrate, which makes it really good at giving us elastic, firmer cheese sauce mixtures (at risk of being rubbery).
But if we use SHMP at a much lower proportion with sodium citrate, we observe a synergistic effect: The citrate does the bulk of the work up front to give a smooth, creamy sauce, while SHMP works more slowly over time, stabilizing the emulsion and giving a little more "stretch" and shine to the sauce.
Hope this helps!
What if you are making a more decadent bake mac and cheese that call for a mix of easily melting cheese and not so easily melting cheese and heavy cream. For example, I combine mascapone, white cheddar, Harvati and gran padano or parmesan,and heavy cream. Would you add melting salts (which ones) or would you stick with a cheese sauce without melting salts
