Yum
Once upon a time, I made atrocious mac and cheese. It tasted ok, but the texture was kind of grainy and gritty. Every once in a while, I would hit it and it would be good but those times were few and far between.
For years, I had seen recipes for it that used eggs to make a sort of cheesy custard but something about using eggs in mac and cheese just seemed weird to me, not to mention that, even to ME, it was like “whoaaaaa… like mac and cheese isn’t fattening enough as is without adding a bunch of eggs to it?” But I kept running into recipes with them in it and the photos I saw always looked good so I broke down and tried it.
I’m sorry I waited so long.
And looking back and thinking in a logical cooking way, it makes sense. Make an egg custard and put cheese in it and you’re going to have something delicious. I do it when I make Pastitsio (the love child of Greek mac and cheese and Greek lasagna) so I don’t know why I hesitated in this. Adding the eggs to the milk and cheese one might normally use to make a white sauce for M&C simply gives you a smoother, richer, better textured final product. If you’ve never used a custard base for pasta, don’t be nervous. If you remember to temper your eggs, you’ll be fine. All that means is to beat a little of the hot milk/cheese mixture into the eggs to heat the eggs up. That way they don’t immediately scramble when you add them to the milk. After that, it’s a breeze. You’ve got this! For the life of me, I don’t recall where I got the un-changed up recipe originally. I had it hand written on a piece of paper with no info.
You know the drill… in this case, it’s go make some outrageously cheesy and creamy mac and cheese!
(I have updated this over the years, because it simply didn’t reheat well due to the sauce getting soaked up. When you first make this, you will think it’s too much sauce. It’s not. it works when first made, and helps the mac and cheese stay creamy when reheated. )
Insanely Cheesy And Creamy Mac & Cheese
- 2 lbs macaroni
- 30 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated (don’t use the preshredded)
- 30 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, freshly grated (don’t use the preshredded)
- 3 lbs Velveeta, cubed
- 3 1/4 cups milk (use whole for this or 2%. There is really no use using skim or 1%. I mean… really… with all the cheese?)
- 5 eggs, well beaten
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- Cook your pasta, drain well and set aside.
- While it’s cooking, combine your cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Pour your milk into a medium, preferably non stick, pot. Over medium heat, bring the milk to a simmer.
- Add in the Velveeta cheese and stir constantly until smooth and completely melted.
- Take about 1/2 cup of the hot milk/cheese mixture and SLOWLY drizzle it into the bowl of beaten eggs, whisking with a fork constantly. When you have it all tempered, slowly pour the egg mixture back into the milk mixture, again stirring constantly.
- Butter a 4 to 6 quart baking dish ( I use one of those deep dish foil lasagna pans for this) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Don’t use a smaller one… this makes a LOT of mac and cheese. Pour half of the pasta into the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and layer the sliced butter all over the top.
- Sprinkle half of the cheddar/jack cheese mixture over the top of the pasta, then pour half of the hot milk/cheese mixture over the top. Repeat this layering one more time.
- Bake at 350 until mac and cheese is bubbly and lightly browned, about 30 to 45 minutes.
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