But where to begin? Obviously a killer mac and cheese recipe is the key to success for this sandwich. A brief online search yielded me the modestly titled "World's Best Mac and Cheese." This recipe had two things working in its favor: 1) It was from Martha Stewart's website (to quote my friend Caroline, "Martha hasn't let me down yet!") and 2) It's culled from Kurt Beecher Dammeier's cook book (of Beecher's handmade cheese fame, see here and here). These positives were enough to sell me on using this recipe for my sandwich. So let's get down to business:
The first thing you may notice about this picture is that there are FOUR different packages of cheese. Looks like I definitely found my killer mac and cheese (literally, my arteries were already scared).
Step one was making the cheese sauce, which would serve as the key ingredient in the mac and cheese equation. You can follow the recipe here, but I'll talk you through it as per usual.
Starting ingredients:
* Milk (3 cups)
* Cheddar (16 ounces)
* 1/2 stick butter
* Flour (1/3 cup)
* Jack (1/2 cup)
* Salt, chili powder and garlic powder as needed
I started out by making a roux with the flour and butter.
Once that was sufficiently blended I started adding the milk gradually.
The recipe's directions seem to indicate that you can pour all of the milk in at once, but I opted for a more gradual process so I could make sure that the milk was fully blended with the roux before adding more milk. I wanted to make sure it mixed together evenly. Once everything was combined in the pot I let it cook for 10 more minutes, all the while stirring regularly.
While I was doing this, sous chef was working on grating the cheeses. We had two 8 ounce bricks of cheddar. One was Cabot Seriously Sharp and the other was Lucerne Sharp. I love Cabot cheese, but Lucerne was on sale, so I figured a blend of the two would provide a little extra dimension to the cheese sauce.
Once the cheese was all grated and the milk mixture was thickened a bit, I removed the milk from the heat and added in 15 ounces of cheddar cheese (saving 1 ounce for later), 1/2 cup jack cheese, and dashes of chili and garlic powder (just eyeballed this).
Even though the burner wasn't on anymore, the milk was still warm enough to melt the cheese as I stirred the two together.
This photo actually makes it look like I was stirring much faster than I actually did, so just picture a nice slowish/even stir. Anywho, once that was mixed together I couldn't resist trying a bite. And once I had one bite I had a hard time resisting the urge to dunk my head in the pot and slurp up all the sauce. I was instantly sold on this recipe regardless of how the macaroni and sandwich portions turned out (sacrilege, I know)!
Once Colin pried the tasting spoon out of my hand I was able to continue. The official mac and cheese recipe calls for penne pasta, but that's penne and cheese, not mac and cheese, so I decided to use good old elbow macaroni. However, since it's so much smaller (AND WE HAD SO MUCH CHEESE SAUCE) we doubled the quantity we prepared-- probably closer to 12 ounces than the 6 that were called for by the recipe. Per instruction, we cooked the pasta for 2 minutes less than the suggested cooking time on the package.
Once this was cooked, strained and ready to roll it was time for the macaroni to take a bath in the cheese sauce.
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Correction, maybe there is one exception:
But I digress. After greasing my standard 13"x9" baking dish I poured in all of the macaroni and cheese.
Add to that a topping consisting of the remaining ounce of cheddar, an ounce of Gruyere and another dash or two of chili pepper and it's ready for the oven.
20 torturous minutes later it was all done!
Correction, the mac and cheese was done-- the sandwich was just beginning. When I have a filling as decadent as mac and cheese I find it best to keep the rest of the sandwich pretty simple, so I opted to go with our tried and true friend: Pepperidge Farm Sourdough. I buttered one side of one slice of bread and PILED on the mac and cheese.
Taste Review:
Well, I didn't have to wait for the actual sandwich to be ready to assert that the mac and cheese itself is AMAZING. I fully endorse the "World's Best Mac and Cheese" moniker. The sandwich had a strong aroma thanks to the fact that the filling had cooked for 20 minutes before we ate it, so that was appreciated. One of the positives of cooking the filling independently of the sandwich is that you don't have to grill the sandwich for that long. Since the filling is already gooey, once the bread is toasted then you're ready to go. On the flip side, this could be a negative in the eyes of some. The filling is so gooey that I kind of wanted something to stand up to it (like how you sometimes have bread crumbs on mac and cheese). Colin said he thought the bread was fine though, so this is all a matter of personal preference.
Creamy, rich and ooey gooey are the words that repeatedly came to my mind as I ate. It was so rich I could've maybe used a slight counter-- maybe garlic bread? Colin had (surprise, surprise) added hot sauce to his, so it hit just the right note for him. But in general it was a delight all around.
FINAL RESULTS:
Sandwich:
|
Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese
|
Gooey-ness:
|
5
|
Aroma:
|
4
|
Appearance:
|
SUPER CHEESY!
|
Taste:
|
A |
Yum yum-- I've yet to go wrong with a mac and cheese grilled cheese, and now I know that I can whip up a professional grade version in my very own home!
Gooey Scale
|
Aroma Scale
|
| 1 = still cold/hard |
1 = can’t smell
a thing
|
| 2 = slightly
melted but still firm |
2 = tender waft
|
| 3 = melted evenly |
3 = makes your
stomach growl
|
| 4 = melted and slightly runny (starting
to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth
when you take a bite) |
4 = strong scent
|
| 5 = runny |
5 = overpoweringly pungent
|
| 6 = sloppy mess! |
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