I've never made mac and cheese before, but I've looked at a lot of recipes over the years. For the holiday, I had finally located some shells (you would not believe how hard it is to find elbows...) and I bought some white sharp cheddar. Now, I'm a fan of extra sharp, but I remember reading that a lot of people use sharp. Over the holiday, it had whiddled down as I used it in omelettes and other things.
So I took out my sad little block of sharp cheddar and the last of the milk, which was reaching it's expiration date. When I say the last of the milk, I think I mean like 1/2 quart. It was looking grim. So I also pulled out a brie that I had eaten over the holiday and cut off the rind and chopped it up. I also munched on it a bit... I also had an aged gruyere drying out in the fridge so I de-rinded that and chopped it up also.
Here is my cheese all ready to go.
I started off with some unsalted butter and added flour to make a roux. Then I added a bit of milk and then more and more. Then I dumped in the rest of my milk, which was perhaps a bit overkill.
I let it heat up til it felt warm to the touch and then started adding in all my cheese, constantly mixing. It didn't look that promising. I let it continue to cook, trying to keep it from bubbling. It got a bit thicker, but not really as thick as I liked it. I felt that it was coming close to curdling, so I cooked the pasta (which I was waiting on the sauce to see how much pasta to make) and then dumped it all in.
Overall, it's not that bad looking. It all surprisingly fit into the pan, and I topped it with breadcrumbs.
After baking it in the toaster oven at 350 for 15 minutes.
The pasta seemed to absorb much of the sauce, but the consistency now seemed a little dry. Apparently, making mac and cheese is an art. Next time, I should use a recipe.
Overall, the taste was not bad, but not very cheesy.
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