Real Macaroni and Cheese
A good dish of macaroni and cheese is hard to find these days. The recipes in most cookbooks are not to be trusted. In some instances this is because they refuse to leave well enough alone, vulgarizing the dish with canned cream of celery soup or a dollop of port wine cheese spread. But most usually it is their vexatious infatuation with white sauce, a noxious paste of flour-thickened milk, for this dish flavored with a tiny grating of cheese. It is the basis for the familiar crumb-topped casserole baked in a Pyrex lasagna pan, a casserole universally bland, dry, and rubbery. Contrary to popular belief, this is not macaroni and cheese. It is macaroni with cheese sauce. It is awful stuff and every cookbook in which it appears should be thrown out the window.
Of course, instead, despite any effort on my part, that recipe will remain the popular one. It is cheap to make and pretty to look at. Real macaroni and cheese is unkempt. It is also generous with cheese, using at least four times more than what is put in cheese sauce The recipe below, the real recipe, lives a life of exile in its own country . . . biding its time in the few homes willing to grant it sanctuary, awaiting the counterrevolution.
This version originally appeared in The Home Comfort Cook Book, publishcd in 1937 by the Wrought Iron Range Company, makers of the Home Comfort wood burning kitchen stove. I give it, however, as adapted first by my mother and then by me.
Macaroni and Cheese
(Serves 4 to 6)
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, cut into bits
Dash Tabasco sauce
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk (or use whole milk mixed with a little cream)
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon dry mustard, dissolved in a little water
1 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 350oF. Boil the macaroni until just barely done in salted water. Drain and toss with the butter in a large, ovenproof mixing bowl. Mix the Tabasco into the evaporated milk. Reserving about 1/3 cup, stir the milk into the macaroni, then add the eggs, the mustard, and three quarters of the cheese. When well combined season to taste with salt and pepper, and set the bowl directly in the oven. Every five minutes, remove it briefly to stir in some of the reserved cheese, adding more evaporated milk as necessary to keep the mixture moist and smooth. When all the cheese has been incorporated and the mixture is nicely hot and creamy (which should take 20 minutes, all told), serve it at once, with a plate of toasted common crackers to crumble over.
No matter how closely you follow my instructions, your macaroni and cheese will never taste exactly like mine, but we'll hope. I never made the dish exactly the same way twice, but each time it gets more divine. -- Pearl Bailey