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Comment by dunham | Hacker News Reader

My wife and kid are pretty happy with Annie's. Might be worth trying if you're looking for another brand. (The only stuff I eat these days is homemade, typically gruyère-based, but we keep Annie's on hand in case we don't have leftovers for lunch.)

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I've never been all that impressed by Annies (weirdly enough, I remember this being a view bordering on heresy when I was in college...), it struck me as being too expensive and too fussy to make. Adult-Kraft dinner is too easy to make - substitute real macaroni, and cheddar instead of the florescent orange cheese dust, same milk and butter. I mix in some American slices or Velveeta-esque process cheese, since I think that gives it a little better consistency, but you can leave that out if you have an abhorrence for tasty, jello-like cheese products.

My guilty pleasure is a big bowl of mac and cheese, with cubed fried Spam mixed in.

You can buy an emulsifier and add that directly (sodium citrate).

Sodium citrate mac cheese is enough to Google for.

You can also just buy the powder by itself, King Arthur Flour sells a white cheddar that's pretty good.

I second this, although I buy from Nuts since I can get it by the pound. There are other bulk distributors out there as well, although the quality does vary. Pick the one you like best!

White cheddar powder is also great if you want to make a cheese sauce with a roux base reasonably quickly and for some reason don't want to use shredded cheese (I usually use both, however, but it is faster with a powder).

Here's some of the ones I use:

https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/powders/cheddar-cheese.html

https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/powders/white-cheddar-cheese....

Looks interesting, but way, way too fussy. I really don't understand why people make macaroni and cheese recipes so complicated, with the cream sauces and baking it and all that. It's incredibly easy and delicious if you just boil the pasta, strain it, throw it back in the pot, then chuck in butter, a little bit of milk, and cheese, and simmer until the cheese melts. Literally the Kraft dinner directions, just with real ingredients.

I think you could use it in that recipe; the sodium citrate will keep the cheese from separating and help it mix with the butter.

Adding sodium citrate to a cheese sauce is the best way I've found of making it less fussy. It's literally like pixie dust - you sprinkle some into some water, melt some cheese in the water, and bam: smooth, creamy cheese sauce with no chance of it separating.

http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-an...

This is supremely unfussy. Best part is the cheese sauce reheats perfectly. The final result is creamy and can be made with any cheese on hand to taste. (Smoked Gouda is astoundingly good)

Your instructions above is my "bachelor version", but grating some cheese into water with sodium citrate while the pasta water is coming to a boil is ridiculously easy and will produce an actual sauce, unlike the melted globs of cheese produced in the bachelor version.

>too fussy to make

1. boil water

2 stir in pasta, cook 8-10 minutes

3 strain pasta

4 add 3 Tbsp of milk

5 sprinkle cheese powder

6 add pasta and combine

[1]

And from kraft its:

1 boil water, stir in pasta, cook 8-10 minutes

2 drain, return to pan

3 add milk, butter, cheese powder and combine [2]

Its the exact same process either way.

Are you saying you buy kraft dinner boxes and then use only the macaroni noodles (making the rest of the macaroni and cheese from scratch)? Why dont you just buy a box of macaroni noodles?

[1] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lVBCtTygO2g/Ufavcs5SauI/AAAAAAAAAd...

[2] http://northsouthfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/info1.j...

Maybe the parent post had tried making a rice noodle version? Rice noodles[1] can be a bit more finicky than wheat noodles in my experience[2].

[1] The "Italian pasta made with rice" versions. I'm not talking about Asian rice noodles.

[2] The rice noodles tend to give off more starch into the water and you need more water to make them. If you don't have enough water, then it gets super starchy in the pot and easily boils over (and can -- seemingly -- take longer to cook, the starchier the water is).

I don't think that' what he was saying at all. He said he does use real noodles, and was just calling his homemade version "Adult-Kraft".

Pretty sure he means: Buy your macaroni in bulk, and just shred a half cup or so of cheddar to stir in with the milk/butter.

Prep is the same, but it's actually cheaper to make.

When I made Annies for the kids my "secret" was to whisk the cheese powder in the milk. It made it much more creamy.

I was raised on Velveeta but eventually the taste of corroded metal and my awareness of frankenfood got to me and I stopped buying the stuff. Luckily I discovered Colby Jack, which as far as legitimate cheeses go is closest in mouth feel and flavor to what Velveeta tries to be. It's awesome for toasted cheese sandwiches.

Not salty enough for mac and cheese though. I've tried adding salt, or garlic salt, or parmesean, or a mix of the three. I haven't perfected it yet.

> if you have an abhorrence for tasty, jello-like cheese products

I have an abhorrence for horrible tasting, jello-like cheese products. Are there any that taste good.

Annie's is good, and the one from Trader Joe's is not bad also, and plus it is very low priced, especially given that it is organic.

http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article/1854

>The only stuff I eat these days is homemade, typically gruyère-based

Bravo.

created: 5 minutes ago :-(

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