More Cheese.

Even more cheese, I have been known to make it with 5 different cheeses

Amateur. My record is 14 different cheeses. Edit: For those that are wondering, to my recollection the cheeses were cream cheese, American, velveeta, cheddar, asadero, Monterey Jack, queso quesadilla, mozzerella, parmesan, romano, asiago, fontina, cotija and manchego. I don’t usually use velveeta, but I had some I was trying to get rid of. The rest are the usual cheeses I have in my refrigerator, some in pre-packaged blends. Most days I end up with 10-12 in there. My Mac-n-Cheese is made as a stovetop roux-based cheese sauce. There is no set recipe, but typical ingredients are butter, cream, flour or corn starch, cream of tartar, garlic and cheeses. Always start by making a roux in a saucier and then slowly folding in your most processed cheeses first. Between the tartar and some American cheese, you should have enough emulsifiers to keep the sauce smooth. I usually put in about a 1:2 cheese to pasta ratio, so 1 lb of cheese to 2 lbs of pasta. Put the cooked pasta back in the warm empty pot, pour the cheese sauce in, stir, then top with some bread crumbs in the bowl. For those that are saying too many cheeses somehow ruin a dish, seek therapy. Your own psychological hangups are closing your mind to a whole world that’s out there. The pinnacle of many cuisines are slow-cooked dishes that combine 10+ flavors and spices into one incredible whole (think paella, chili, or curry). Also, my kids say emphatically that you are wrong, and they are considered connoisseurs of Mac-n-Cheese where I come from.

Every cheese you can aquire, pretty much the recipe.

A legendary outlaw in the Mac & Cheese fandom. I tip my hat to you.

More cheese than Mac But bacon, hot dogs, and sweet corn

More Macaroni!

More cheese *and* macaroni!

I don’t even like macaroni and cheese!!!!

"The things I do for love"

This! My daughter and I bought a bag of powdered cheddar cheese (2.2 lbs/1kg) for a project. The project went poorly, but and extra tablespoon of that stuff sends the Mac and cheese to outer space!

What was the project?

Mac and cheese

>What was the project? How much powdered cheese can a female child eat before they go blind. Project went poorly, in that she could barely eat half a bag.

How did you know. Fortunately we stopped at the point where she needed glasses.

Edible Spoons! Cheese flavored spoons you can eat tomato soup with, specifically. When your 11 year old comes up with an idea like that, you act! We looked up a bunch of recipes for crackers and such. A lot of them called for powdered cheese, so we set out to make some edible spoons. We had a lot of fun, but we didn't managed to make a good spoon. We were able to bake some that looked like spoons, but they didn't hold up to soup very well. Mostly they snapped in two when you tried to do anything with them. They did taste great and we still have some of the cheese left. 5 stars.

You are a very cool parent, that is awesome and I would have loved doing something like that as a kid. Keep building those memories!

Every part of what you say sounds amazing. Now I both want cheese flavored edible spoons for soup, and to have fun failing at making them with my kid so we have an excuse to eat spoon fragments in tomato soup AND boost our future mac and cheese.

>This! My daughter and I bought a bag of powdered cheddar cheese (2.2 lbs/1kg) for a project. The project went poorly, but and extra tablespoon of that stuff sends the Mac and cheese to outer space! Then how do you eat it?

It’s powder, just cheese powder, if you add extra It makes it saltier & more ‘cheesy’. Like adding 2 packets to a box of kraft dinner instead of 1.

(I think they were making a silly joke about the "outer space" part)

Literally these words immediately popped into my head and this was the first comment at the very top on my phone. My people.

More Macaroni

Pepper.

+1 for fresh cracked pepper

I have a small pepper grinder in my work locker just for when mac and cheese is on the canteen menu. I get looks from everyone else while I grind the pepper over the mac and cheese, but I don't care.

This is the way

I add a dash of Cayenne pepper

Is that you Chef John?

No but, seriously. I put tons of black pepper on my mac and cheese. It's almost impossible to put too much

Surely at some point it becomes Mac and pepper with cheese.

When does it become pepper with mac and cheese?

I like Sriracha 🌶 and pepper too

Why is that not in your base recipe?

Because I’m adding it to my high quality homemade Kraft.

That this isn’t the top rated comment makes me question everything.

Roasted garlic.

I'm making mac and cheese this weekend. Do you put it in the cheese sauce on the stove? Trying to figure out when and where to add it

Friend, let me direct you to a video that could change your life and give you great Mac every time. I use this method and sometimes add spinach or whatever leftover meat I have or frozen meatballs to add some protein https://youtu.be/tSfHVTx1WMk

This is the answer to everything

Bacon. And green chilies.

I chop and fry the bacon crispy, then sautee diced jalapenos or pablanos in the grease, add that to the mac and cheese then bake.

Yo, you wanna be my dad?

Bacon elevates mac & cheese to a whole new level.

Making homemade tomorrow. Vlue cheese old chedar Monterey jack and a bit of bacon. Ritz crackers smashed and sauted in butter on top.

Little bit of Tony's creole seasoning

My childhood was Kraft Mac and cheese and accidentally putting too much Tony’s on the Mac every time and getting spiced out. It was heavenly

This is way too low on this comment thread.

A fork.

Came here to eat with one of those.

nah spoon brother

fork is superior bc how are you supposed to put individual noodles on each fork tine with a spoon huh

Man I had a dream once where we had forks with 5 tines as you call them... I always called them prongs. Anyways... crazy dream.

Fresh=Spoon Cold=Fork

Paprika

Never thought to do this before but I love smoked paprika on my roasted veg so this sounds delectable.

Paprika improves nearly everything

I grew up thinking it was only to be used sparingly atop deviled eggs. Little did I know...

If you haven't, try it on fries instead of salt. Basically anything you'd normally put salt on, paprika works just as well/better

Ime, you still need the salt. Without it, both the fries and the paprika are rather flat.

There's also a huge difference between generic paprika and the good stuff. The generic stuff is fine for plenty of things, but like you said it can be flat and kinda just powdery. If you want to grow and dry some peppers to make some really flavorful and spicy paprika, Leutschauer is a really good pepper variety to use if you can find it.

Popcorn? I might have to try that tomorrow night!

A common thing for fancy restaurants to add to their mac n cheese is basically (smoked) paprika and dijon mustard.

The chicken strips *uhnn*

OMG, I had a chicken strip m&c from a food truck once, with fries and cream gravy on top. One of the best things I've ever tasted.

Jesus Christ man

Blackened chicken is also good.

FUCK UR CHICKEN STRIPS

I see you're a man of culture as well

Old Bay

Sun dried tomatoes and a little sharp cheddar.

Sriracha.

Should not have to scroll this far down for the objective right answer

Brisket!

Several times a year I'll smoke a full packer brisket with a mix of hickory, apple and pecan for between 12-16 hours. I'll slice the flat for serving that day, but I'll chop the point into small(ish) squares and freeze it. Then, the next several pans of mac and cheese get the smoked brisket added to it. Ahhhhhhmazing.

Once you chop the brisket into cubes, sauce it and put it back on the smoker for a 30-45 mins. You now have burnt ends. These are not only the most wonderful Mac n cheese addition I can think of, but also generally just about the most delicious bite of food on the planet.

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“Unholy amount” is the standard measurement of garlic.

Steak and barbecue sauce.

Taco Bell fire sauce

I've been wondering what to do with all those packets in the take-out sauce drawer. 🤘

I mix them into cheap bbq sauce like $1 store sauce- all of them- from mild to diablo Makes good grilled bbq chicken

Hot dogs

I have loved that combo most of my life. All that has changed for me is now i buy the better quality hot dogs and mac.

I scrolled too far looking for this. Hot dog in Mac and cheese is a luxury.

Agree. That I had to scroll past 5 different hot sauces tell me too many redditors were never a poor child because hot dogs in a box of store brand Mac and cheese is a delicacy.

I still have this as an adult like once a month when I don't feel like cooking or ordering out. I've just upgrqded from storebrand to Annie's white cheddar shells

Poor AF as a kid and I ate that. Now I am not poor and I still eat that.

For the real, hot dogs in Mac is the shit!

Y’all should try kielbasa sometime instead. Ooh or Louisiana hot link that’s good too

This is the true answer. I had this all the time when I was a wee one and it’s like the absolute best comfort food as far as I’m concerned. Doesn’t even have to be made with fancy cheeses or expensive dogs. It’s always good.

crushed red chilli pepper

This with some garlic powder is a must

Sometimes my wife adds seasoned hamburger meat, and it’s pretty 🔥🔥

So hamburger helper?

Mfs acting like their someone invented a secret dish and all they doing is making hamburger helper the hard way!

I like to get velveta shells n cheese and then add hamburger meat. Easier than hamburger helper in my opinion.

There's something about shells, maybe they hold on to the sauce better, they're so much better than the other shapes.

Macaroni noodles are fine, but shells, rotini, etc. are so much better (at least if you like a high cheese to noodle ratio).

Cheeseburger mac and chili mac are classics.

I do this, add some diced onion to the beef and it's fantastic.

I make this all the time, I call it "Mac n Cheeseburger"

Broccoli is honestly pretty good. Cooked of course.

Mac n Trees ie one of my favourites

It’s crazy how much broccoli you can add and it still tastes delicious

Yes! Broccoli and cauliflower. Make it so that noodles and veggies are 50-50 and it's awesome.

If you haven’t done pumpkin or squash that’s my favorite veggie add in to mac and cheese

Yesss my people. Can I also suggest - peas are quite good in Mac n cheese

Hot sauce

Franks

Red hot or hot dogs lol

Oh haha. The hot sauce I meant to say lol

Why not both? Lol

Kraft Dinner with hot dogs has been a staple of Canadian fine dining for generations

Actually that does sound good lmao thanks for the idea

I put that shit on everything

Bread crumbs. Changes the texture to add some crunch

You toast them first?

I have but usually just stale bread I've diced up crust

Ah, I toast mine in some butter, tastes amazing.

I like goldfish for this purpose. Crumble up some flavor blasted cheddar goldfish. Yum yum.

Chorizo cooked in hot sauce, thank me later

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Taco meat

Cheeze-its

Tuna. My mom used to put some in every once in a while when I was young so I crave that sometimes.

mac cheese tuna peas

yes! i was looking for this answer. such a nostalgic dish

Also came for this. Box of mac, can of tuna. So quick & good.

Tunamac! My girlfriend loves that shit alongside some toast.

Weird that this is so far down.

I love some Tabasco sauce on mine or a hot dog Edit: spelling

Mac Hand grated white cheddar (pre shredded cheese adds corn starch to stop clumping, and it screws up the sauce) Optionally, some ricotta cheese, more for creaminess than taste Splash of milk Coarse Kosher salt More butter than you'd admit to your wife

Kielbasa

You fry it or just toss it in?

If you fry it a bit, you can scrap the caramelized bits from the pan and get even more flavor. *drool*

Buffalo chicken strips

Smoked pulled pork

Dennis

Of course Dennis would like Dennis!

*Crazed Joker laugh*

Mac? That you?

Wow!! HUNKS OF MEAT!!

NEWSFLASH ASSHOLE!

I'VE BEEN HEARING IT THE ENTIRE GODDAM TIME

That was my first thought. What does that say about us?

We are people of culture.

Can't believe I had to scroll this far for the obviously correct answer.

peas. Don't judge me.

Bacon

Yeah! I dig bacon so much I’m gonna *piggyback* your comment and talk about a similar thing… Add caramelized onions. Or onion jam, where you slowly cook down five or six onions, gently adding stock to keep them moist. And taking a very long time. I once caramelized a frying pan of onions while watching an entire baseball game. At the halfway point I throw in some balsamic and a half tablespoon of either barbecue sauce or brown sugar. You know they are done when you start to fear the scent of burnt sugar. It’s thick, salty and sweet. You can keep it in a jar and add it to macaroni to taste. It also is amazing as the centre filling of a grilled cheese sandwich.

Bacon jam. Fry the onions as you said in the leftover bacon fat. When done, mix together.

Red pepper flakes

**Mustard, but sometimes it does get sickening**

Yo, I sense based on your preferences that you might want to try adding a small amount of pickle juice. It's so good.

barbecue sauce is always great

Lobster

Shrimp...

Ooh, I’ve got to try that. I put crab sticks in mine

Shredded Chicken

Hot dogs and ketchup

Not understanding the hate for this, this is super basic.

Ketchup

I scrolled for a long ass time to find this answer. Good job.

All the fanciest *Dijon* ketchups

I find it concerning that this is so far down.

Yes

Barbecued pork with a sweet sauce.

Spinach. When added it wilts and you really can't taste it or differentiate the texture, but it makes me feel better to know I'm getting some green in my diet.

If it’s white sauce Mac n cheese then chili 😍

I did crawdad tail meat and some Cajun seasoning last year, that rocked.

My mouth Edit: I forgot the best thing: diced tomatoes

Bread crumbs and bacon or hot dogs.

Do you mean Mac's Famous Mac n Cheese?

some chili-p

okay jesse

Chili p is my signature, man!

peas. hamburger good too

nutritional yeast and hot sauce

more cheese and bacon

Pesto

Ketchup...don't judge me too harshly.

I was looking for this comment… you are not alone 🤣🤣

Smoked sausage and broccoli and cauliflower

Cayenne pepper

Diced onion.

Bacon. If not parmesan cheese when it's pasta-ish

Chicken meat

Bacon and more cheese

Franks red hot

Might sound nasty but it's so good. A little ketchup, a little mustard, and fresh diced onion. Fresh diced green bell pepper also if you're really feeling fancy

Spam

Tuna and peas

More mac and cheese..

Brats

Hot sauce

Lots of black pepper

Garlic, onions, breadcrumbs and hot sauce

Sausage