Gravy's Cooking Thread
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Fogel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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America's test kitchen mac and cheese uses a blend of cheddar and I believe colby jack, I'd have to double check the recipe. The main points are cheddar has the superior flavor but on its own it doesn't melt so well for a sauce and gets oily and chalky from seperation. But if you blend it with a cheese that melts well you'll get a nice sauce texture without having to resort to emulsifiers.
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Yeah, just a few weeks ago I found one o the little copper bristles in my Thai food at lunch when I ate out. Thank god I noticed it since that could possibly do a number on your insides if it gets lodged somewhere.
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Our favorite Mac and cheese recipe growing up was from Jack Dempsey in New Orleans. I think the Times Picayune had it in a Sunday paper back in the 90s, and my mom clipped it out because she used to clip out recipes from the newspaper. We used to go there and eat all the time if we were downtown.The point is that you can use a high quality cheddar cheese or something that isn't cheddar at all. Anything that's sold as American cheese is going to be bland and flavorless.
I use this usually...
...and then some fresh grated parmesan to taste but you can use any cheese you like. One warning though, don't use any "pre-grated" cheese. It's covered in corn starch which will make the sauce grainy.
I don't know the exact amounts but, but the following will be close enough for government work.
16oz bag penne pasta
1 can evaporated milk
1 block cream cheese
1 stick butter
1or 2 eggs
Whole milk
Cheese - whatever the hell you want, but at least a pound and a half. Typically a blend of sharp cheddar, a mix of Italian harder cheeses, and something that's an easy melter (monterey jack , Colby, mozzarella, provolone). Gouda, Gruyerre and all of those types of cheeses work as well, just use whatever the hell you got.
Al dente your pasta a little under, add your softened cream cheese can of evaporated milk, eggs, cubed up butter, and grated cheese. Top it off with some milk or you could always use cream, just to have some standing liquid at the top of the pasta.
Bake it in a covered dish at 350 for I don't know how long, but just stir occasionally. Once everything's getting a little bubbly and tender, pull the lid off and throw some more grated cheese on top. They never did bread crumbs on theirs but you could always do that if you wanted to change it up. But cover with cheese and throw it under the broiler.
Still my favorite homemade recipe to this day and that restaurant is pretty damn famous and they're known for that particular side dish. If you ordered fried catfish it was enough to feed two or three people, when you get a heaping helping of the mac and cheese with it. Their crab meat au gratin was really good too. I don't remember anything on menu being bad though.
It's definitely not as saucy that's something with American cheese, are using those emulsifiers, but it's pretty damn rich and will make its own sauce from the eggs and evaporated milk. Anytime we've ever made it over the years especially with guests or relatives being over, everybody always claimed it was the best damn macaroni and cheese they ever had. Was always a staple to go with ham on Easter, or anytime we did a fish fry.
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Fogel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Koushirou
Log Wizard
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As much as I like to dunk on Ina Garten, this lobster Mac and cheese was the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had. Bonus if you have the lobster shells, put them in the pasta water first until it boils for extra flavor.
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That tubby bitch really does know her cooking. I used to watch her show on food Network, and the vast majority of recipes she would do was always something that I'd be happy to go ahead and fire up in the kitchen. It's just hard to watch her because she's such a hardcore, Martha's vineyard, New Yorker, but she knows her way around the kitchen.As much as I like to dunk on Ina Garten, this lobster Mac and cheese was the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had. Bonus if you have the lobster shells, put them in the pasta water first until it boils for extra flavor.
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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As has been noted, the other way to keep your cheese sauce from "breaking" aka turning into a lumpy, oily mess, is to add some Monterey jack or American or some other melty cheese to it. The downside of this is that Monterey Jack isn't particularly flavorful either, not that it tastes bad and you need a pretty good ratio to keep your cheddar together. Cream cheese is another way to get some emulsifiers into your sauce. That's a popular way to "cheat" at making alfredo sauce that doesn't break too. You can also make a roux and add milk to it and basically make gravy which you add the cheese to. I like the modernist version because you can pick your cheese for flavor and not for melting characteristics and the texture comes out absolutely perfect, but if you don't want to "resort" to emulsifiers for some reason, there are other ways to do it.
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Koushirou
Log Wizard
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I still love watching her just because she’s fun to meme on with my mom. Especially watching all her soirées with a bunch of dudes while poor husband Jeffery is off working.
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Haha, no kidding. That poor bastard is never around to eat her food, he's just off doing Jew York work, although they're not exactly poor. He's probably got a mistress.
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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i mean, this bitch is nice to look at, but i doubt anyone took her recipes seriously from this skinny bitch
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Wrong person.i mean, this bitch is nice to look at, but i doubt anyone took her recipes seriously from this skinny bitch
Edit: had to go look her up because I couldnt remember her name, but that's Giada De Laurentiis, from the Dino De Laurentiis lineage.
Shes easily one of the hottest celebrity chefs. I'm sure she broke into the industry on Food Network just because of her connections in Hollywood.
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Right on... I completely forgot about her but she is smokin. I guess I never remembered any of her recipes for obvious reasons.I always called her show "Everyday Italian with Giada's Boobs". Another one that I thought was pretty hot even into her 50's was Nigella Lawson.
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Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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well yea thats what i mean, you'd trust a fattys recipe over a skinny oneWrong person.
Edit: had to go look her up because I couldnt remember her name, but that's Giada De Laurentiis, from the Dino De Laurentiis lineage.
Shes easily one of the hottest celebrity chefs. I'm sure she broke into the industry on Food Network just because of her connections in Hollywood.
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Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
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It all typically depends on what you are going for. The skinny broads have the inside info on shit that is vegan/vegetarian/sustainable if you're into that. Looking for pure raw "Sure this shortens your lifespan by an hour each time you take a bite, but what a fucking bite" you always trust the fatties. Mario Battalli may have been a metooing dude in the kitchen (lawl, the media has never worked in a kitchen) but I'd trust his work over most chefs. Except Ming Tsai. That is still my literal favorite chef/personality entirely because of his East Meets West show from the late 90s/early 2000s. Getting drunk on almost every episode while also making bomb ass food from scratch is awesome entertainment.
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Ahh, I agree, that's why it's why Chef Paul Prudhomme was one the greatest chefs of all time.
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Ming Sai is fantastic. He was in that original cadre of food Network chefs back in the late 90s early 2000s. Watched him along with Battalli, Flay, Emeril, and Brown.
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