The rise of macaroni cheese!

phoenix I was a little overwhelmed when it was served to me in a local pub. Never ordered it again.

I am hard pressed to believe that such a dull, mundane food merits all these pages of posts.
You do know that now macaroni is at the top of my shopping list for Friday, I just have to try it.
I have only eaten it once, it was at a conference to do with a voluntary job I did some years ago and it was served for lunch as being a safe option for a hundred or so unknowns. It was so unremarkable I cannot remember the taste.
I will try it once again?

Lobster Mac'n'Cheese is a wonderful bit of luxury making an ordinary dish into a super one. Give it a try you won't regret it and Lidl, Aldi and Iceland often have frozen lobster at very reasonable prices.

Oh no, not a favourite but very trendy at the moment it seems. Give me cauliflower cheese with a good layer of tomatoes any day

I love it - came across a student cookbook version was was macaroni and cauliflower cheese and now never do any other version - lots of tomato ketchup and it's delicious, especially good with roast potatoes! But just gone vegan, so need to test out new cheese alternatives to suit me!

I always put nutmeg with anything containing cheese grandtante - I thought it was compulsory!

It’s a favourite in this house, lots of strong cheese and a dollop of mustard. I sometimes add some cauliflower if I have one, lovely with salad, though hubby insists he has to have meat as well, he like a pork chop or some bacon best, cannot make him understand it’s to much protein, still it’s his arteries he’s clogging.

I was given a Marguerite Patten cookery book when I first married in 1970 and macaroni cheese was the first recipe I ever used from it. It has been a staple meal ever since, but only ever made with a proper roux sauce.

When I make a Macaroni Cheese, I use a strong flavoured cheddar for the sauce for starters.
Before I put it into the oven, I place thin slices of mozzarella cheese on the top, before sprinkling fresh finely grated Parmesan cheese to cover. The result is a cheese lovers delight. This is also great for Cauliflower cheese too.

When I make macaroni cheese I lightly fry bacon & look, always use strong cheese.

Sadly I no longer make, not worth it for one, DH loved it

My DH objects to the ubiquitousness of the term which, until recently, was good old 'macaroni cheese'.

I do a macchese similar to the one varian describes - many many vegetables along with the cheese. I add hot paprika, dijon or powdered mustard - it's grand to see so many other fans of mac cheese. It was often our go to Thursday evening meal when the children were at high school. Whoever cooked had to rustle something up from whatever was left in the fridge, often known as fridge bottom tea. If you have tinned tomatoes and dried pasta/brown rice, you can't go wrong

When my mum used to work shifts, my grandma would "make" me eat mac cheese on toast... I hated it she knew I hated it and cannot even look at a tin without thinking how horrid she was.....!! (thast my dads mum, who never liked me anyway) the feeling was mutual..

I agree with those who dislike the term Mac n cheese, it’s macaroni cheese!
My tip is to make more cheese sauce than you think you’ll need and less macaroni so it’s not stodgy.
I like to eat it with peas and Branston pickle.

Macaroni cheese in childhood was a dull and boring dish because it was just after the war and 1 oz of mild cheese of uncertain origin was thought enough to make the sauce for portions for 50 school dinners ( or that is what it tasted like).

Nowadays, with the sauce made with cornflour, not flour and a large portion of a highly flavoured British hard cheese incorporated into the sauce, with more scattered on top, and, personally, with a pinch of mustard and paprika in the sauce, you have the food of angels. Adding other ingredients (bacon, onions, tomatoes etc) is just gilding the lily

... and I never call it anything but macaroni cheese any other name is only used for false impostors.

When I googled recipies one came up with the idea of adding a tin of tuna.
Now that appeals to me, tuna pasta is one of my favourites, especially in a pub when someone else has made it.
I will go for that.

My American GC eat 'Mac n cheese' although it seems to consist of cooked macaroni with cheese grated chucked on tip and then grilled.

Mind you, even that is better than Kraft Macaroni Cheese, which is one of probably just three meals my Dh has refused to eat in 45 years of marriage. It's an abomination!

Interesting to see others who recall macaroni pudding. We still have it very occasionally and none of my dc have ever come across anyone else of their age who has ever eat a sweet macaroni dish.

We call it macaroni cheese, too well established to be everything else. Make it with a good mature cheddar, onions, garlic, seasoned well, add a few chilli flakes, plenty of cheese on top to go really crispy, delicious. (DH likes the tinned variety too. I really cannot bear the sight or smell of that stuff, looks too much like vomit).

I love it but always add some chopped sun dried tomatoes and shredded basil just before serving.

My DM made a macaroni pudding a few times - but not often. I think we all preferred rice pudding.

I don't mind what it's called - it's wonderful either way. When I was a little girl I remember fantasising about a house with macaroni cheese walls, which you could dig a spoon in and eat a bit at any time and it would magically rebuild itself. I wouldn't have given tuppence for the witch's gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel. My American daughter-in-law still loves Kraft Mac'n'Cheese and has been known to eat it straight from the can as she did as a child when nobody was looking (she is amazingly fit and slim, unlike me!). It's a cosy orange colour, easy to reproduce in Scotland where much of the basic cheddar you can buy is coloured orange. And on the subject of Scotland, macaroni pie here is like a Scotch pie - it's macaroni cheese encased in shortcrust pastry. You get it at the butcher's and eat it out of the paper bag, particularly if you're a teenage boy (which I'm not).

Yes, mac'n'cheese is an Americanism, and that serves to differentiate cool, on-trend food for millennials from fuddy-duddy old-fashioned school dinners, but the pleasure for those of us who love the cheesy flavour and the silky texture is just the same whatever it's called.

Pity I'm now on a low-carb diet ... but courgetti in a cheesy sauce made with butter, Philadelphia, some single cream and grated cheddar with just a teaspoonful of cornflour to hold the sauce together is pretty good ... and since its quite rich I am not tempted to scoff it all down in one sitting.

Had a fabulous Mac'n cheese in Costa the other day... was amazing :creamy and grilled all crispy on top and a great change from the normal sandwich/rolls on offer..... might just go again for another one! Love a Mac'n cheese but OH not...

I love it, but it's still called macaroni cheese in our family. None of this Mac business.

Might have some for tea tomorrow.

petal macaroni Scotch pie used to be one of my favourites before I went veggie. I miss the pastry from a Scotch pie!

Sorry, kittylester I always hated it but it was my sons tea of choice on CUBS night when they were children.