• janAkali@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    WTF is wrong with americans? Can’t they eat normal somewhat healthy food? Use real cheese and just grate it on top of some hot macaroni, damn it.

      • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        American cheese isn’t made of plastic in the sense of polymers, it is plastic in the sense of being easily deformed or molded.

        At its most basic, American cheese is literally just cheese, water and sodium phosphate. It’s “not cheese”, but in the sense that meatloaf isn’t meat and mayonnaise isn’t eggs.

          • Album@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            “American cheese” was invented by a Canadian.

            It’s also just cheddar with an emulsifier and some milk fat. You can make it in your kitchen in a few minutes.

          • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            American cheese is not a fancy cheese, yeah. It also isn’t great cold.

            It is a pretty decent cheese sauce, though. It doesn’t taste starchy, with a muted cheese flavor like mornay does. If you put extra sharp cheddar or smoked gouda in homemade mornay or homemade American, the homemade American will be noticeably cheesier. Having made homemade mac and cheese a number of ways, I strongly prefer homemade American to any of the other recipes I know.

            I only really eat store-bought American melted, such as on eggs in a breakfast sandwich, on a burger or grilled cheese.

            Also, there’s plenty of decent American cheeses, like Humboldt fog, Maytag blue, or rogue river blue. American cheese is called that, but it doesn’t define American cheese making.

      • kase@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Man I don’t even wanna know what’s in the powdered cheese you get in a macaroni box. (I don’t eat any cheese cause I’m lactose intolerant, but I always see people just toss the cheese pouch and use their own cheese.)

        • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It’s powdered cheese sauce.

          It’s mostly made using spray dryers. Basically, a spray dryer uses hot air to quickly dry a fine mist of something. It’s how they make milk powder and egg powder as well.

    • AltheaHunter@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      WTF is wrong with you??? You just grate cheese over pasta and call it a day? The cheese should be melted into a sauce (I start with a bechamel and then add cheese), then mixed into the macaroni. I prefer to bake it with breadcrumbs on top after for some textural variety.

      • janAkali@lemmy.one
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, bechamel is great too, but I’m lazy. Cheese only is also fine if you let it sit a bit with top covered. It’s not dry if you use soft creamy type of cheese. Baking it? Nah - it’ll be too soft and melty for my taste, pasta should have texture.

    • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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      9 months ago

      That’s not exactly healthy either and but it tastes like it should be. Mac n cheese should be creamy AND cheesy and delicious. What you are suggesting sounds plain and dry, I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole unless I was a guest at your house. But you can be damn sure I’d tell everyone you can’t make Mac n cheese and I definitely wouldn’t trust you with dinner ever again.

      You start with a roux add a little milk then cheese then milk and again cheese. Keep doing that until it’s cheesey/creamy enough. Good idea to add salt and some seasonings as well.