Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Why This Homemade Macaroni and Cheese Works

During cooking, the pasta is only boiled to al dente, so it stays a little firm instead of turning mushy. That way, when it sits in the hot cheese sauce, it doesn’t fall apart and still has a bit of bite.

In the saucepan, butter and flour cook together first. As the flour heats, it loses that raw taste and starts to grab onto the melted butter. Once the milk is whisked in, the flour swells and thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy base. By the time the milk is hot and slightly thick, it can hold a lot of cheese without breaking or going grainy.

When the cheddar and Parmesan go in, they melt into that thickened milk instead of clumping. The starch on the cooked macaroni also grabs some of the sauce, so the cheese sticks to every piece instead of sliding off. In the oven, if baked, the sauce settles into the pasta while the top cheese melts and firms up, giving a soft, creamy middle with a slightly chewy, cheesy top.

Mistakes To Avoid

Boiling the macaroni until it’s very soft instead of al dente makes it fall apart once it sits in the hot cheese sauce. The pasta keeps soaking up liquid and breaks down, so the mac and cheese turns mushy and pasty instead of having separate, tender pieces.

Letting the butter and flour sit too long in the pan or brown deeply can throw off the sauce. The flour cooks too hard, so it doesn’t blend smoothly with the milk and can leave the cheese sauce grainy and slightly gummy instead of silky.

Pouring the milk in all at once instead of gradually often leads to lumps. The flour mixture can’t spread out properly, so clumps form and stay in the sauce, giving the finished mac and cheese a bumpy, uneven texture.

Adding the cheese while the sauce is boiling hot can cause it to split. The fats separate from the liquid, and the sauce turns oily and stringy instead of smooth and creamy.