How to Make Baked Macaroni and Cheese from Scratch

You think you know how to make macaroni and cheese, don’t you? If you use stuff from a box, slap yourself now (though if you’re in a

college dorm or a hostel you’re excused–I’ve been there, it’s ok, I understand you have to break the Ramen binge somehow). If you do it the traditional way from scratch, then you’re most of the way there and should be proud. But, we’re going to take it a step further, we’re going to…kick it up a notch 😉 (though he is in no way involved here). We’re here with

Alton Brown today, and, as usual, he’s going to take a traditional dish that you thought you knew how to make and he’s going to show you just a couple, seemingly insignificant, little modifications or “hacks” that are going to make a huge difference. Here’s what to do:

Additional Resources and Further Reading

If you’re a hardcore macaroni and cheese aficionado then you’ll have to check out (if you haven’t already) the book Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime by Joan Schwartz. Most of the recipes start off with a basic béchamel sauce (milk whisked into a roux) and add various domestic and foreign cheeses to the hot mixture, but some find room for more exotic ingredients, like truffles, duck prosciutto, oysters, sausage, and codfish. In addition, there’s a glossary of almost 40 milk and goat cheese varieties that appear within the recipes.

Here’s another awesome recipe for baked macaroni and cheese from CookLikeYourGrandmother.com (good name).

For more from Alton Brown, check out his website here.