BAPyessir6
Sous Chef
So there has been a viral Mac and cheese on TikTok going around (funnily enough I don't have/use TikTok, but as it's food I still get food updates in my Google feed).
It's by a gal who was mentored by Gordon Ramsey, and everyone LOVES it.
It's an easy enough recipe. Spiced Mornay/roux cheese sauce mixed into noodles, but the odd/unique thing is layering noodles and cheese in a pan like lasagna. It also has 1 pound noodles to 2.5 pounds freshly grated cheese, so it's A LOT of cheese. Here is the recipe itself.
My issues with the recipe are as follows:
1. It's a LOT of cheese. After you take it out and cool it, I saw a little bit of oil pooling in the bottom of the pan.
2. Her ratios of spices feel too much, specifically the dijon mustard. After trying the mac before baking, it tastes very very mustardy to me. Almost overpowering. After baking, it's still mustard forward, but a little less so. Still too much for my palette.
3. The cheese sauce. Though I was very careful to not overcook the cheese sauce (I never let the sauce get over 130F when melting the cheese into the sauce, which took me 10 minutes of stirring and now my arm is sore
). It's almost but not quite gritty/dry, just slightly. I personally love using (gasp) high quality Velveeta in combination to fresh cheese, specifically 50/50 ratio by weight. Then I get that butter texture and a great cheese forward flavor, and I can abuse the sauce itself more and not be as worried of it splitting/overcooking.
4. It's very rich. The cream is good, but man I was getting full just looking at it. I'd probably use less cream or some milk in addition. I love milk.
Personally, I realize I don't like using recipes, at least not for simpler dishes like Mac and cheese. I found myself wanting to change up lots of things in the recipe as I was making it, but I forced myself to not change anything. Though on that note, I did use different noodles.
Anyway, those are my personal thoughts. Good, but not amazingly great. I may take some ideas out of the recipe itself in future Macs (specifically cheese layering, but I'd do way less), but it isn't something I would call the best ever.
It's by a gal who was mentored by Gordon Ramsey, and everyone LOVES it.
It's an easy enough recipe. Spiced Mornay/roux cheese sauce mixed into noodles, but the odd/unique thing is layering noodles and cheese in a pan like lasagna. It also has 1 pound noodles to 2.5 pounds freshly grated cheese, so it's A LOT of cheese. Here is the recipe itself.
- 1 lb pasta corkscrew/cavatappi preferred
- 1 lb mozzarella cheese
- 1 lb colby jack cheese
- 1/2 lb cheddar cheese sharp preferred
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp all purpose flour
- 12 oz evaporated milk (1 can)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tbsp mustard Dijon
My issues with the recipe are as follows:
1. It's a LOT of cheese. After you take it out and cool it, I saw a little bit of oil pooling in the bottom of the pan.
2. Her ratios of spices feel too much, specifically the dijon mustard. After trying the mac before baking, it tastes very very mustardy to me. Almost overpowering. After baking, it's still mustard forward, but a little less so. Still too much for my palette.
3. The cheese sauce. Though I was very careful to not overcook the cheese sauce (I never let the sauce get over 130F when melting the cheese into the sauce, which took me 10 minutes of stirring and now my arm is sore

4. It's very rich. The cream is good, but man I was getting full just looking at it. I'd probably use less cream or some milk in addition. I love milk.
Personally, I realize I don't like using recipes, at least not for simpler dishes like Mac and cheese. I found myself wanting to change up lots of things in the recipe as I was making it, but I forced myself to not change anything. Though on that note, I did use different noodles.
Anyway, those are my personal thoughts. Good, but not amazingly great. I may take some ideas out of the recipe itself in future Macs (specifically cheese layering, but I'd do way less), but it isn't something I would call the best ever.