(917) 209-4801 [email protected]
Mac & Cheese 101 (+ How to Jack Your Mac & Kick It Southern Style)

Mac & Cheese 101 (+ How to Jack Your Mac & Kick It Southern Style)

After that fantastic morning cutting the cheese with the Cheese Lady (LadieS, original and 2.0), I wanted, no needed, to drill down on the “recipe cheeses” that Shelley was going on about.  Yes, I do like to cook with cheese, but I also couldn’t be happier with a big spread, especially if there are raw milks in the mix.   But after sharing my insights into the featured “recipe” cheeses in my last post, I turned around, drove back and bought even more, just for cooking.  Mac & Cheese seemed like an easy and simple go to idea, but as you are probably noticing, I’m not one to let well enough alone.  Okay, that’s not 100% true – I pendulum-swing from letting stellar ingredients shine (less is more) way across to an insane amount of add-ons (more is more).  Have you already forgotten the Everything but the Farmer Farmer’s Market Salad? I rest my case.  I’m sure there are good pharmaceuticals for this split personality, but I choose to go it alone and see what boils over each day’s pot.

So many cheeses, so little time: chunks of gruyere with fresh mozzarella balls; stacks of gruyere slabs, grated fontina, chunks of gruyere and dices mozzerella

So this recipe is part Mac & Cheese 101 – including classic French béchamel technique – and part KMG – Katy Goes Mad …in this case, for Pimento Cheese.  Two big drivers here: The Cheese Lady Muskegon sometimes has Zingerman’s Pimento Cheese.  At the risk of telling you about it and creating a run on the stuff, it’s divine.  The second is dear ole Dad.  I think pimento cheese sandwiches were a staple his mother made – Grandmother Keck was quite the cook in the farm-girl-vegetable-soup-and-applesauce-by-the-vat-load-sort-of-way.  Whatever his inspiration, he was super fond of the spread and, like me sourcing out the goods from Zingerman’s, he had his haunts.  (I hate to admit that it was a Stuckey’s gas station on the highway south of Terre Haute….let’s just say this apple rolled a few acres after falling from that tree.)  The notion of his love for “pimenna”, as he more or less Hoosier twanged it, lives on, and it wouldn’t be unheard of to find it served at an engagement party or stuffed on whole wheat and into your Christmas stocking – not because you’re dying for it but because it needs to be there.  It’s the right thing to do.  Some things you just don’t question.

There’s one more reason I’m keen to dose the mac & cheese in the southern way – a recent trip to Atlanta, trend-spotting for a client, had me in awe of the many uses of pimento cheese.  From apps almost to dessert, I was hard pressed to find a joint without the ubiquitous spread in the 13 restaurants I visited in 36 hours.  It was some kind of heaven and I’m sure my Pop was sitting nearby, somewhere on the right hand.

For the basics: The start to any classic flour-based sauce is a roux – equal parts flour and butter (or in the case of gravy, flour and meat or bird fat), generally used in equal portions.  It’s always important to toast the flour, once the two are whisked together. That is what gives the sauce a cooked, somewhat nutty taste.  For those that thicken pan drippings by whisking in flour at the end, there will always be a slightly raw flour taste.  The longer you toast the roux, the deeper the color and flavor. Some gumbos will have it go all the way to a deep rich dark color.  But Mac & Cheese is based on a white sauce, so for this the roux, we will only toast it until it just starts to bubble – about a minute or so.

Making a Blond Roux with equal parts flour and fat

No Shame in Measuring

I can eyeball proportions pretty well and often don’t measure but there is some chemistry at work here and there is no shame in measuring.  A little precision will help ensure success.  When making gravy at Thanksgiving, even I pour off all the pan drippings to see how much is fat and how much is broth – stay tuned for a Fall drill down on that.  In a flat roasting pan, it’s damn hard to tell the ratio – pretty easy in a glass measuring cup when the fat floats.

The key proportions for a sauce of average thickness are:

  • 1 Tablespoon Fat
  • 1 Tablespoon Flour
  • 1 cup liquid

Mac & Cheese is generally started with a white sauce or Béchamel.   There you are speaking French again. You’re welcome!  The addition of cheeses to this blond roux-thickened base turns Béchamel to Mornay.   Add crayfish and you have Nantua Sauce.  Sautéed Onions makes Soubise.   And  you can probably guess what makes Béchamel into Mustard Sauce.  FYI, Bechamel is one of three of the five mother sauces that uses roux – so pay attention here!  1 T to 1 T to 1 Cup!

For a pound of pasta, you will need 3 to 4 cups of sauce.  I make a mean turkey tetrazzini that uses spaghetti (not such a clingy noodle) and it seems to soak up about 3 cups of sauce.  Since you are adding cheese to further thicken this sauce, I find Mac & Cheese with a curly, needy noodle like cavatappi will absorb closer to 4 cups. (Better safe than sorry – err on the “make-too-much” side).  So who’s doing the math here? 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter, 4 T flour, 1 quart of milk.

Bechamel Becomes Mornay by adding cheese - two pot shot

After you finish the sauce, stir in grated cheese(s).  I’m not bothered by the color here and chose white cheeses (high quality, of course: Fontina Fontal for its creaminess and ability to hold a sauce and Barber’s Cheddar for its edge).  I realize that some of you can’t get over needing the bright yellow – but for the love of God, please use a quality yellow cheddar.  Did you see that Kraft recently did the world’s biggest blind taste test?  Assuming that fans would complain when they took out some dyes and non-natural additives, they secretly made the switch without changing the packaging (except ingredient list) and way ahead of schedule. Nobody noticed.  I did feel pretty much affirmed on my comment last month that commercially produced turmeric “tasted – well, yellow” because Kraft used it in lieu of yellow dyes 5 and 6.  I can promise you if the turmeric had tasted like ginger, as intended, someone would have noticed!  But the unspoken fact still remains – even though these additives are so called natural, they are not natural to cheese.   There is nothing wrong with a white sauce with white cheeses!

Chopped and Grated! Chunks of mozzarella and grated gruyere with oven dried tomatoes

The other thing I like to do with the cheeses is grate some and cube the rest so you get pockets of cheesy goodness that melt and string as you pull.  If you don’t like that (seriously, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?), then either chop the cheeses more finely, or grate them all.  With any of the grated cheeses, use a coarse grater.  If you grate too finely (think green shakers of wood pulp/cellulose), the cheese “dust” won’t melt well and will cause the sauce to be a bit gritty. Nobody likes that!  If you are using a variety of flavors like I am – or even more distinctive flavors, like a blue or pepper cheese….or  blue with pepper (yes! Glacier Wildfire Blue!!!) – it’s really important to add the cheeses separately from the sauce so you get the distinct pops of flavor.  If you only added them to the sauce, it would be a blended flavor and the strongest cheese wins.  Not the goal! Layer! Layer! Layer!

I’m starting you out with the basics here and including the southern twist, but there are plenty of other ways to jack your mac, and I’ll ‘bring it’ in the future.

Ooey Gooey Mac & Cheese with Southern Twist (“pimenna cheese”)

Béchamel Sauce:

  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 4 Tablespoons flour
  • 4 cups of milk
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
  • 2 cups grated cheese (I used a combo of ¼ pound Fontina Fontal and ¼ pound Barber’s Cheddar)

Cheesy Goodness:

  • 1 pound of cavatappi or curly noodle shape
  • 2 fresh mozzarella balls, chopped ½” cubes
  • ½ pound fontina fontal, grated
  • ½ pound gruyere, ½ grated and ½ cubed

Jack your Mac Southern Style:

  • ½ cup You’ll Thank Me in the Winter Oven-dried Tomatoes (or good quality sun-dried)
  • ¼ cup chopped peppadew peppers
  • 3 Tablespoons chopped chives, divided per below
  • ½ cup panko bread crumbs
  • ½ cup fried onion topping
  • 1 Tablespoon of butter, for dotting

Make the Béchamel:

Melt the butter and whisk in the flour to make a roux, the texture of wet sand.  Let it start to bubble and continue for one minute.  Whisk in the milk and combine well.  Add the salt and red pepper flakes.  Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until thickened, whisking from time to time to make sure the bottom does not stick.  Add handfuls of the 2 cups of grated cheese and stir until melted.

Making a Blond Roux with equal parts flour and fat

Meanwhile cook the pasta according to package directions in salted boiling water, stopping about two minutes early.  Drain and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Orange colander of cavatappi

Pour the cheese sauce over the warm pasta, using about ¾ quarters of the sauce to start.  Stir until combined, adding additional sauce as desired. (You will likely want it all).  Add the You’ll Thank Me in the Winter Oven Dried Tomatoes, peppadew and 2 Tablespoons of chives.

Adding the Southern Flair to mac & cheese; one bowl is pasta with mornay and the other has pimento, and herbs being added

Preheat oven to 350oF.

Transfer 3 cups of the sauced pasta to a buttered 3-quart casserole dish.  Layer 1/3 of the remaining cheeses (the grated fontina, grated and chopped gruyere, and chopped mozzarella). Repeat with two more layers of pasta and cheese until all are used, ending with the cheeses.

Building the Mac & Cheese by layering in the dressed pasta, then cubes and grated cheese with dried tomatoes, then repeating

Combine remaining Tablespoon of chopped chives, panko and fried onion topping in a small bowl. Sprinkle on top of the pasta and dot with butter.

Bake the assembled macaroni and cheese for 30-40 minutes until bubbly.  Raise oven temperature to 450oF and bake an additional 7 to 10 minutes until top crisps up.

Serve hot and gooey!

Serves 6 as main, or 10 – 12 as side.

Mac & Cheese Southern Style - in an oval casserole with panko crust, and pimento cheese sauce

© Copyright: KatyKeck.com 2016. All rights reserved.

Hey, we want to hear from you!

Don’t forget to Comment below, Share & Subscribe to our blog.

There’s a New Cheese Lady in Town!

There’s a New Cheese Lady in Town!

One of the great surprises of pitching a tent in West Michigan was finding a cheese store, nay a Cheese Lady, which far surpasses all found in the multiple world capitals in which I have lived. I know that seems hard to believe, but I’m here to tell you it’s flat out fact. Even Paris, with its iconic Androuët, home to one of my greatest meals ever, pales in comparison to The Cheese Lady. If it were the Cheese Olympics and I was the Russian judge – ok, not her, she’s a bit mean – the American Judge, I would give Androuët a stingy 5.8. The Cheese Lady, a solid 10. Any quality cheese monger will have an extensive variety – The Cheese Lady carries some 150 cheeses from around the globe, with about 20% quality domestic cheeses. And sure, sure, sure, all respectable joints will include raw milk cheeses – something that was off limits in the US until relatively recently. TCL has raw in every category, including goat which is a bit rare. The big difference however is the Midwestern hospitality. Just imagine, if you will, a French monger shouting his most disdaining Mais No!!!  But just in case variety, raw milk, and hospitality aren’t enough, Kathleen Fagan Riegler, the original Cheese Lady, wears a beret. Mais oui!!! I can feel my gruyere melting already.

Beret-Wearing Cheese Lady in front of the chalkboard with all the listingsKathleen spent nearly two decades on the road peddling le fromage for a big Chicago-based importer. Tired of the road, she set herself up at the Muskegon Farmer’s Market and sold out each day. Kathleen loves the market: the energy, the diversity, the passion of both growers and customers, and I think even quite possibly annoying people like me who ask way too many questions. She loves us all. She also has a real gift for connecting with her customers and sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm. Because of the farmer’s market, she developed a mentality and sensibility that focuses on sharing. Very few shops taste cheeses with their customers. Fewer still cut to order. This gift of sharing and generosity trickles down throughout the entire staff. They all totally embrace the living nature of cheese and the fact it varies from day to day, quick to point out whether this wheel needs immediate consumption or can wait a week. Customer service as it was intended!

Sampling Cheese - hand cutting half wheel with a cheese plane and offering a tasteTalk about right place at the right time! Kathleen was there to ride the wave of consumer interest in increasingly more intense flavors and America’s (even West Michigan’s) growing fascination with all things cheese. What you can’t help but notice is the SISTERHOOD at The Cheese Lady that Kathleen has created. You business types might call this a franchise, but I assure you, it is so much more. This is a family of Cheese Ladies and the newest addition (sisters are scattered across Michigan from Traverse City to Kalamazoo) has been there since the beginning, right at the flagship store. Shelley Essebaggers Lewis. She approached Kathleen in the earliest of farmer’s market days when the first tiny store was coming into focus, and Kathleen assured Shelley she would never be that busy. Six stores later, Kathleen is THAT busy. The time has come and Shelley is now the newest (official) Cheese Lady. Kathleen’s goal is to be an increased resource to “The Sisters” and continue to source new products and learn and share. This move allows more time to visit and coach all the sisters. And Shelley is both ready and excited to officially take over the flagship that she has managed for years. Run right over and pick up some of the yummy cheese that I recently sampled and give her a big high five. The future of The Cheese Lady Muskegon is bright and tasty.

Kathleen Riegler and Shelley LewisI spent the morning with them during a blizzard a few weeks ago. Winter cheeses, great for recipes and cooking, were on the menu. We cracked a couple huge wheels and I was surprised (probably shouldn’t have been) that the flavors were so nuanced and nutty. I sometimes clump cooking cheese into a category less flavorful. Never again. Not on my watch. These cheeses would be great in French Onion Soup, Fondue, Gratins, Omelets and Mac & Cheese (recipe coming very soon – thinking about making it Saturday, with a nod to pimento cheese jazzed up with peppadews).

Big Wheels The cheese lady cutting large wheels of cheeseFirst up was a Cave-Aged Gruyere from Switzerland – a raw cow’s milk cheese. The aging creates crystals giving the cheese a light crunchy texture and deep nutty taste. The wheels are a whopping 80 pounds. Super delicious and a fantastic candidate for best grilled cheese ever!

Fontina Fontal is a staple in North Italian pantries. It’s a perfect melting cheese. The Lady likes to use it in mac & cheese to make the cheese sauce creamier. I suspect it will be going in mine! Cheddars have a tendency to separate when heated, so a cheese like this will keep the sauce from breaking.

Next up was Emmental, the classic “Swiss” cheese, which bares zero resemblance to the sliced stuff you get hanging on a rack at the supermarket. Emmentaler has a protected origin designation so that the integrity of true Swiss Emmentaler can be maintained by its stringent standards. The wheels often weigh upwards of 150 pounds. Emmentaler is a brined cheese, so there is a slightly salty taste. Pure perfection.

Specialty Cheeses - some of my faves; wheel of cypress Grove Midnight Moon, Fontina and label from Pleasant Ridge ReserveAnd then we finished off with some Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Yum. One of Wisconsin’s most awarded cheeses, Pleasant Ridge is a raw milk cheese, made from the milk of a single herd, fed and managed using natural “Old World,” hand-crafted practices. As the cheese ages, its flavor becomes more complex and concentrated and is both musty and mushroomy. Often eaten as a table cheese, it is also an excellent recipe cheese.

#BestMorningEver

I\'ll take that to go! Stacks of freshly cut wedges of cheese

While not on that day’s menu, I did have to squeak in a taste of truffled Gouda.  Melkbus is a raw milk Gouda made on small dairy farms around the Netherlands. Each style is numbered – this was #149, a buttery unpasteurized Gouda with Italian black truffles added to the curd before pressing.

O. M. G.

Melkbus #149 - Truffled Gouda - 1/4 wheel and a large web

I am 100% sure that The Cheese Lady has upped my food cred among colleagues, friends and family alike. There are certain people that likely only invite me for Christmas because I come with a clown-car-sized suitcase filled with The Cheese Lady treasures. I can’t tell you how many guests (it’s a lot) visiting each summer bring coolers to stock up. Some even throw tantrums if we miss the opening hours. I’m pretty sure we should start some kind of petition to get Cheese Ladies Everywhere. I know I could use one on my NYC corner. Right now. My then-12-year-old cousin said she was pretty sure there should be one or two in every state, right before proclaiming The Cheese Lady as “my idol”.

Cheese in the Spotlight: Two rather disturbing stories have surfaced in the media this week. One I reject wholesale – a GQ piece saying that cheese can be addictive. They say it like that is a bad thing? I know for a fact that cheese is good for you – hence the expression cheesy goodness, although there is a high probability that I invented that expression myself. Still. Just sayin. Isn’t cheesy euphoria what we live for? The only part of that post that I do embrace? A retouched photo of Scarface with 20 kilos of uncut Colby.

20 Kilos of Uncut Colby - riff off Scarface with Al Pacino looking at highly addictive cheese of many flavorsAnd then there is the distressing news about wood pulp in our cheese. Well, not in my cheese. Unfortunately NBC Nightly News filled the story with B-roll of beautiful cases of hunks of cheese. They went so far as to create an infographic showing what the acceptable 4% level looks like on a wheel. That’s not where the cellulose (anti-caking agent) is found – it’s in the little green shakers of “parmesan”.  (They also report that some of those shakers have zero parmesan – all cheaper cheeses AND wood pulp). So another reminder to read your labels. And while you are checking out ingredients, check out expiration date. I can pretty much guarantee you that the cryovac Manchego or feta at the supermarket will have expiration dates from 6 months to a year out. Remember that bit about cheese being alive? Not so much when sealed in plastic. Just go already to The Cheese Lady where your lovely, breathing, creamy, runny, tasty, smelly, gooey piece of dairy heaven is cut to order and wrapped in French cheese paper. Have I made myself clear?

Kathleen Riegler and Shelley LewisCourtesy of The Cheese Lady…some 30 second appetizers:

  • Manchego, Pear Preserves & Marcona Almonds
  • Eurocreme Stuffed Peppadews
  • Dried Figs Stuffed with Gorgonzola & Honey Drizzle
  • Taleggio & Tart Cherry Preserves
  • Mascarpone & Lemon Curd on Oatcakes
  • Fresh Chevre, Quince Chutney & Toasted Coconut

Toasted Baguette Toppers

  • Iberico & Olive Tapenade
  • Feta, Prosciutto, Honey & Fig
  • Raclette & Cornichons
  • Burrata & Artichokes
  • Valdeon Bleu & Creamed Honey
  • Irish Cheddar & Pear Jam

My Mac & Cheese recipe is coming soon! Stay tuned!! It’s National Drink Wine Day so I think you know what you gotta do! Giddy up.

If this is wrong, I don\'t wanna be right, Cheese board with goat cheese with cran chutney, brie, pears and other cheese with crackers and cheese wafers© Copyright: KatyKeck.com 2016. All rights reserved.

Hey, we want to hear from you!

Don’t forget to Comment below, Share & Subscribe to our blog.