Last Minute Mac and Cheese

It’s always good to have a couple of different types of cheese on hand, just in case you find yourself out of other proteins and you need something hearty and delicious to put on the table. Or just in case you need a last minute cheese platter. Tonight I made macaroni and cheese from a few of the cheeses I had on hand: the blue from Vermont I mentioned the other day, a Pecorino Romano, and a raw Cheddar, also from Vermont.

Traditionally, a mac and cheese is made using a combination of Cheddar and American Cheese, which, while I’m on that topic, I’d like to just put this out there, is not actually cheese. I’m sure you already figured those little individually wrapped squares from the pre-sliced cold cut section of the supermarket were not lovingly stacked on shelves in a mountain cave and aged for 60 days. Nor was the big, glossy brick of Land O Something-or-other you see behind the deli counter. No no. The cheese labeled “American” is a cheese by-product.  Like in the same way that particle board is a wood by-product. According to the American Cheese Society, American Cheese is a “processed cheese”, which is defined as a cheese by-product made from a combination of natural cheese and added ingredients, such as stabilizers, emulsifiers, and flavor enhancers that are used to create a consistent and shelf-stable product aimed at mass market consumption.

Another interesting fact about cheese is that in the same way that all dogs share the same DNA, from Chihuahua to St. Bernard, all cheese is made from the same three ingredients: starter culture, rennet and milk. The only difference is the way those three ingredients are combined and aged. So Gorgonzola, Camembert, Romano, Cheddar, Gruyere, St. Marcellin, fresh goat cheese, all cheese comes from exactly the same ingredients.

The only exception is processed cheese.

So why mess up such a perfect food with emulsifiers and other stuff your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food (as Pollan would put it)? For many years, when the US had few to no artisan cheese producers, it may have made some sense to do this in order to facilitate national distribution. But that’s just not the case anymore. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an artisan cheese outfit and that’s a wonderful thing!

I really shouldn’t make it sound like artisan cheese producers are everywhere. Though there are pockets of production and grateful consumption of fantastically complex and delicious European-style cheeses nationwide, these producers are up against huge manufacturers and their millions in marketing campaigns. In order to insure the survival of artisanal producers, and our subsequent vast selection of such specialties, there needs to be a major paradigm shift in the way we as consumers shop, namely away from the mass-produced cheese found in every supermarket. My point there, with the dead cat comment, is that artisan cheeses are around if you look for them. And you should look for them if you like quality cheese and would like to continue to see quality cheese. It’s just a shame it took us so long and now “American Cheese” is defined as the SPAM of cheeses, and not something flowery like, “One of many regional varieties of complex cheeses produced in the United States.”

So that’s why I didn’t use American Cheese in my mac and cheese tonight (or ever). Although, I will admit, I used to love American Cheese on white bread with mayo as a kid, but then I also used to like chewing on wax.

Anyway. I made tonight’s mac and cheese with stuff I had lying around, like the rest of the box of penne I opened the other day for the Blue Cheese and Salami Baked Penne, the Cheddar, blue and Romano, but you could really use any combination of your favorite cheese, as long as you have a good melting cheese thrown into the mix. I like to top mine with a little extra dose of the melting cheese and some ground cumin to bring out the nutty flavors in the cheese.

Yankee Cook’s Mac and Cheese – serves 2-4

Half a pound of short pasta, cooked
2-3 T butter
2  T flour
1 C milk
1 C, +1/2 C grated Cheddar
1/4 C Pecorino Romano
2 T blue cheese, crumbled (but not the “crumbles”)
salt to taste
a few dashes of ground cumin

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once it foams, whisk in flour and blend over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Pour in milk and whisk until smooth. Allow the roux to thicken. Stir in the cheeses, remove from heat. Stir until just melted. Season to taste.

In a small to medium casserole, combine the pasta with the cheese sauce. Top with the additional cheddar and a sprinkle of ground cumin.

Bake, uncovered for 20 minutes or until bubbly.