Besides burgers, perhaps nothing is as ubiquitous on the plate inside and outside the home as mac & cheese. That’s a tad bit mystifying to me since mac & cheese has touched my lips no more than a dozen times in my life. I wasn’t raised on it and never became a fan. Am I alone in the world?
It was interesting, however, when I visited the test kitchens at Meredith Corp. in New York earlier this month and was exposed to mac & cheese prepared four ways. Meredith publishes Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and Every Day With Rachael Ray. The food editors of those magazines test every recipe that appears on their pages an average of three times.
The food editors met with a group of us on an excursion to their office in conjunction with the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference. They decided it would be fun to serve us mac & cheese using recipes that appeared in their respective magazines. They asked us to guess which of the four versions appeared in which magazines. (I sampled three of them, and I bet I’m still under a dozen lifetime servings.)
Here are the types each magazine served, which would be especially interesting to any well-versed in the publications:
- Goat Cheese, Fig & Walnut Mac—Family Circle Farro Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Bacon—Every Day With Rachael Ray
- Your basic garden variety Macaroni and Cheese—Ladies Home Journal
- Macaroni and Cheese with Caramelized Onions—Better Homes and Gardens
I have to say, the Farro Mac ‘n’ Cheese was the most interesting (I’m not saying the best). Farro was used in place of macaroni. The bacon saved it.
And what’s happening in restaurants with mac & cheese is no less interesting. One would think we as a country would be about over it, but alas, we’re not.
- A few fast-food restaurants have decided of late to add it as a healthy kid’s menu option. That would be Arby’s and Burger King.
- Others are adding it for the sake of variety. Wendy’s just announced this week that it is introducing macaroni and cheese made with white Vermont cheddar cheese.
- The popular dish also made the limited-time cheese-focused menu at Denny’s last fall. In that case, it was Mac ‘n Cheese Big Daddy Patty Melt.
- New restaurants also find a place for the American favorite on the menu. Café Enterprises Inc. plans to launch two new restaurant concepts this summer. One will be a fast-casual restaurant, and they plan to include Truffle Mac-N-Cheese on the menu.
May they all experience success of Kraft proportions. I’m sure I’ll never know.
Tell me what you think.
Jody
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