Batch Cooking Kid approved
Smoked Corned Beef (Better Than Boiled, Every Time)
The same store-bought brisket everyone boils flat, smoked at 250F until it shreds. Somewhere between pastrami and pot roast, and it is not close.
Next Door Chef nextdoorchef.com/recipes/baked-mac-and-cheese
Batch Cooking Kid approved
Baked Mac and Cheese That Stays Creamy (Feeds a Crowd)
The tragedy of baked mac is a creamy sauce going into the oven and grease coming out. One can of evaporated milk ends that forever.
Everyone has eaten the tragedy version: creamy sauce goes into the oven, orange grease comes out. It is so common that people believe baked mac is just like that, and the stovetop crowd uses it as evidence.
It is not a law of nature, it is a broken emulsion, and one can of evaporated milk prevents it. This is the version that comes out of the oven browned on top and still creamy at the center, and it doubles into a steam-table pan for a crowd without changing anything but the bake time. It has fed more backyard parties from my kitchen than any other single dish.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 55 min
- Serves
- 10
- Level
- Medium
How to make it
-
Grate your own cheese
Bagged shreds are dusted with cellulose so they do not clump in the bag, and that same dust keeps them from melting into a smooth sauce. Two blocks and a box grater take four minutes and they are the difference between silk and grit.
-
Undercook the pasta on purpose
Two minutes short of the box time, then drain. It finishes cooking in the oven while drinking sauce. Fully cooked pasta going in means bloated, mushy pasta coming out.
-
Build the sauce off the roux
Melt the butter, whisk in the flour, and cook 1 minute until it smells like pie crust. Whisk in both milks slowly and simmer 3 to 4 minutes until it coats a spoon. Kill the heat, then melt in two thirds of the cheese a handful at a time with the mustard and paprika. Off the heat matters: cheese that boils breaks.
-
Assemble, top, bake hot and short
Sauce and pasta together, into the buttered dish, remaining cheese over the top. 400F for 25 to 30 minutes until brown and bubbling at the edges. Long slow bakes are what wring the fat out of the cheese, get in and get out.
Chef's note. For a crowd, double everything into a full steam-table pan and add 10 minutes. It holds heat for an hour covered in foil.
Why this works
Cheese sauce is an emulsion of fat, water and protein, and the oven is where emulsions go to die: heat drives off water until the fat has nothing to hold onto and pools on top. Evaporated milk is the counterweight. Its concentrated milk proteins act as emulsifiers that hold the sauce together at oven temperature, which is why a can of it shows up in every church cookbook mac that never breaks. The roux thickens, the dry mustard sharpens without tasting like mustard, and undercooked pasta plus extra-loose sauce is the ratio that lands at creamy after 30 minutes of baking instead of before it.
Swap what you do not have
- Any good melter works in the mix: gruyere for fancy, gouda for smoky, pepper jack for heat. Keep the cheddar as the base.
- Smoked mac: a half pound of chopped brisket or pulled pork folded in before baking. This is not a suggestion so much as a report from the backyard.
- Gluten-free flour blends make a fine roux, swap 1 to 1.
Make ahead
Assemble the whole dish a day ahead, refrigerate unbaked, and add 15 minutes to the bake time. Make the sauce slightly looser than seems right, the fridge tightens it.
Leftovers and storage
Four days in the fridge. Reheat covered with a splash of milk at 325F, or in a skillet where the crispy bottom is a feature.
Per serving, estimated: 480 cal 22g protein 38g carbs 27g fat
Questions people ask
Why does my baked mac and cheese come out grainy or greasy?
The emulsion broke, from too much heat for too long. Melt cheese off the heat, bake hot and short at 400F instead of low and long, and add evaporated milk, whose concentrated proteins hold the sauce together in the oven. Pre-shredded cheese makes it worse because the anti-caking starch never fully melts.
Can I make baked mac and cheese ahead for a holiday?
Yes, it is one of the best make-aheads on the table. Assemble it unbaked up to a day out, keep the sauce a little loose, and bake straight from the fridge with 15 extra minutes. Baking it fresh beats reheating a baked one every time.
What are the best cheeses for baked mac and cheese?
A sharp cheddar for flavor plus a smooth melter for texture, roughly two to one. Cheddar alone can go grainy, and mild melters alone taste like nothing. Monterey Jack, Colby, young gouda and gruyere are all in the smooth-melter family. Always off the block.
Recipe by Sammy Panice, the Next Door Chef. More at nextdoorchef.com
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