I just don’t like these new Mac & Cheese recipes! Is that wrong?

One of my ongoing cooking challenges has been to make a “good” Mac & Cheese.  In the past year or so I think I’ve labored over this bastion of old time comfort/diner food at least a dozen times or so, not once enjoying what I would consider success.

Making any scratch Mac & Cheese involves conjuring up a flavorful cheese sauce by cooking a bechamel-like cheese concoction, mixing it with a quantity of cooked pasta, either elbows, shells, or penne, then baking it.  Bam! Simple, huh?

I came to the realization last night that my expectations of a certain result, a flavor profile that would satisfy ME, were simply off track.  It isn’t because I was making it wrong, I was just making it with the desire for a different taste or outcome than I have been getting.

Let’s face it, Macaroni and Cheese has been around for a long time.  Recipes are all over food magazines and food sites and now served in trendier places than your favorite greasy spoons.  However, these recipes, though sounding intriguing, don’t produce a “traditional”, the-way-mamma-used-to-make-it result.  These nouveau renditions have introduced a plethora of “untraditional” cheeses and ingredients like goat cheese, Asiago cheese, Fontina, Gouda, and yes, sometimes cheddar and American.  These last two cheeses is where I should start and stop in my quest for the perfect Mac & Cheese.  So you see, my “failed” versions (including the one I spent a couple hours on last night) are far from failures.  I have simply been expecting a different outcome.

Mind you, I am not yet ready to head back to the blue box of Kraft yak,  I just think I need to shift gears, realign my flavor buds, and attempt a truly old fashioned recipe.  The version I made last night probably tasted exactly like it was supposed to taste.  The short take on the recipe:  steeping the half and half with garlic and fresh thyme, rendering down pancetta and using the fat from that to make the roux, and using a combination of seven cheeses (as mentioned above).  Why would I expect it to taste like my old favorite?  It’s an entirely different animal this new kind of Mac & Cheese.  Each time I taste one of my new recipes my first inclination is to do the Skip Hansen Two-Step Shuffle towards the stainless steel receptacle!  And that is exactly what I did.  It didn’t taste bad, it just didn’t taste like I expected it to.  Imagine that…I’m still throttled by my own misguided, self-destructing expectations at this late age!  And the worse part: I stew on them (pardon the pun) and it’s only cooking!!!  I’m up and writing about it at four in the morning for gosh sakes.

I think the Mac & Cheese I made last night would satisfy any number of trendy food fans in any number of trendy little bistros.  I’m sure of that as most of the recipes from which I “borrowed” ingredients are from places that supposedly serve this stuff to elated customers looking for something new not traditional. It tasted exactly like it was supposed to taste:  though smooth, it was too tart and cheesy for my liking.  Asiago, Parmigianno-Reggiano, and Sharp English White Cheddar have those flavor profiles.  End of story (?)  Not quite.

Though it is the end of this blog entry, the story won’t end here.  I will endeavor to simplify a new recipe for Mac & Cheese (from scratch) and try again soon.  I’m thinking milder, yellow cheddar and perhaps an old staple:  Velvetta.  Did I just say Velvetta?  Yep.  I’ll save those other elegant cheeses for other culinary adventures, but not for Mac & Cheese.

It sounded good…it just didn’t taste good…not matter how many times I tried. Geeze, I’m stubborn.  It only took a dozen or so times to figure out this one!