Southern Baked Mac and Cheese

The formula

Every ingredient resolved to grams, expressed against the recipe's own base — next to the median of all 120.

	this recipe	typical
cheese	150%	112%
dairy	214%	168%
fat	25%	13%
thickener	7%	0%
salt	1%	1%
aromatics	1%	0%
different cheeses	2.0	1.0
melt idx	0.8	0.6
cheese flavor idx	0.4	0.6
stretch idx	0.3	0.3

Adapts cleanly: egg-free, nut-free (documented swaps, applied on the dish page)

Ingredients

Weights computed by us.

227 g	8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, block-style
227 g	8 ounces smoked gouda cheese, block-style
227 g	8 ounces pepper jack cheese, block-style
227 g	8-ounce block Velveeta (original flavor), cubed
454 g	1 pound dried elbow macaroni pasta
114 g	1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
30 g	1/4 cup all purpose flour (see notes)
488 g	2 cups whole milk (or milk of choice)
484 g	2 cups half-and-half
6 g	1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
2 g	1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 g	1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 g	1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 g	1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 g	1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 g	1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
0 g	1/8 teaspoon (a pinch) cayenne pepper- optional

Method: 11 steps, published by www.butterbeready.com — open the original ↗ or use bake mode for a follow-along with a screen that stays on.

“Cynthia — February 3, 2022 @ 12:23 pm Reply I got fans of this Mac n cheese! I’ve struggled to get any love for my previous macs but this was a game changer. My family is a loyal fan to their aunties Mac and mine would fall short on the regular. I was determin” — a cook

“I got fans of this Mac n cheese!  I’ve struggled to get any love for my previous macs but this was a game changer.  My family is a loyal fan to their aunties Mac and mine would fall short on the regular.  I was determined to finesse my skills here.  I followed” — a cook, 5.0★