It needs to be undercooked so that it doesn't end up mushy and overcooked in the oven. Next, cook macaroni pasta in well-salted water until just under al dente.
#Good cheese for mac and cheese how to#
How to make "soul food" or southern baked macaroni and cheeseįirst, you need to have a lot of love and soul. Let me tell you, Essence featured my Gentleman Jack Bacon Mac and Cheese on their Instagram and the Black Caucus tore me a new one as if they've never seen bacon in macaroni and cheese before! As I said, mac is serious business in the African American community. No roux, no fancy stuff, no stoves, no add-ins. Just shred your cheese, stir it with your half and half and milks and creams, season to taste (yes, taste the mixture because you'll end up with bland mac otherwise), add your eggs, stir it all together with the macaroni, and bake in the oven. But this is what makes mac and cheese so good, so add in all the cheese. My mother uses at least six, one including sour cream and chives cream cheese. Ask any black woman who is responsible for making the mac and cheese for holidays: mac and cheese is tends to be expensive because there are multiple cheeses used and they vary between families. You will be argued down if you think you can only use cheddar or Velveeta in your mac and cheese. It holds the creamy cheese mixture well, and kids are familiar with the shape so they won't say no to it. Honestly, I don't think anyone will accept any other pasta shape.
It becomes a topic of debate if ever brought up. Mind you, everyone will have a different variation, though all are pretty similar besides the number of cheeses and the addition of seasoning salt.Īnd depending on how easily offended they are, they will argue you down to the kitchen about how their's is superior. Seasoning salt is used sometimes, evaporated milk, the argument of 'eggs vs no eggs' always comes up, but its core is based around very simple and mostly mandatory ingredients. It's amazingly simple in theory, but there are plenty of tiny tweaks that many do to make their mac unique. There's no roux, there's no stove-top happenings, it's simply southern baked macaroni and cheese. Southern baked macaroni and cheese is from scratch, period. What makes 'black folk' or southern baked macaroni and cheese different? Possibly exiled from all cookouts, depending on how bad you've disrespected the mac and cheese. If you bring any type of mac and cheese recipes made from a box or in a store, you will be ragged on and not allowed to bring food again. Which is every holiday: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, 4th of July, birthdays, marriages, births, funerals. Our mac and cheese is just as important as any main dish at every holiday it shows up at. It's bestowed upon only those who can be trusted with the responsibility of making mac and cheese, because you are not messing up Thanksgiving with bland, overcooked, sad mac and cheese. Why is southern baked macaroni and cheese so important to black culture?įor one, black people hold macaroni and cheese in high regard, and it's the pinnacle of black culinary accolades. Creamy, rich, ooey-gooey, super cheesy, with those crispy browned cheese edges.no one can resist perfectly baked mac and cheese. Of course, there are a whole lot more slavery problems that were still going on after that, but just like how America celebrates July 4th, we celebrate Juneteenth, the 19th of June, as the official day by feasting, dancing, and merriment, as our ancestors did when they were freed.Īnd while they probably didn't have mac and cheese back then for their freedom feast, it's a pillar in black cuisine and definitely one in my house. A whole two years after they were legally freed, but.you know, until the Army came to physically come to tell them they were free, they certainly weren't told by their illegal traffickers and abusers.
#Good cheese for mac and cheese free#
Which is why it's here today, on Juneteenth.įor those who don't know, Juneteenth (or Emancipation Day) is a holiday celebrated by Black Americans for the official dying bell of slavery when the Civil War ended, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the last slaves in Galveston, Texas were told they were free in 1865. A staple in soul food and southern cooking, this mac and cheese goes back generations and is saved for special occasions. You know, the one with all the memes about how only specific people in the family (usually an Auntie or Grandma) are allowed to make it. Serve at your Thanksgiving table with my grandma's candied yams and southern slow-cooked green beans to give your meal a Southern flair! Southern baked macaroni and cheese, also called soul food mac and cheese, is the ultimate in comfort food.
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