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EveryCheese

Pasta, rice and grains

Macaroni and cheese

Elbow pasta in a Cheddar sauce, often baked under a browned crust; a staple of American Sunday dinners.

Macaroni and cheese is pasta, usually short elbows, bound with a cheese sauce and often baked until the top browns. Cheddar is the classic cheese. Known in Britain as macaroni cheese, it became one of the best loved comfort foods in the United States and Canada, central to Southern and African American Sunday and holiday tables.

What goes in

Sharp Cheddar: 29%29%Elbow macaroni: 33%33%Milk: 19%19%Butter and flour: 10%10%Eggs: 5%Breadcrumbs or paprika: 5%6parts
  • Sharp Cheddar629%, Grated; often mixed with others.
  • Elbow macaroni733%, Cooked firm.
  • Milk419%, Or evaporated milk.
  • Butter and flour210%, For the sauce.
  • Eggs15%, In baked custard versions.
  • Breadcrumbs or paprika15%, For the top.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Simmer Boil the macaroni until just short of tender and drain.
  2. Step 2: Grate Grate the cheeses.
  3. Step 3: Simmer Make a roux of butter and flour, whisk in milk and simmer until thick.
  4. Step 4: Melt Stir most of the cheese into the sauce until smooth.
  5. Step 5: Layer Fold in the macaroni and pour into a buttered dish.
  6. Step 6: Layer Top with the remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.
  7. Step 7: Bake Bake until bubbling and browned, and rest briefly before serving.
  8. Sharp Cheddar: 29%29%Elbow macaroni: 33%33%Milk: 19%19%Butter and flour: 10%10%Eggs: 5%Breadcrumbs or paprika: 5%
    Finished Macaroni and cheese, by share.

Old recipes

Pasta baked with cheese appears in medieval European cookbooks. In 1769 the English writer Elizabeth Raffald published a recipe for macaroni baked with a cream sauce and cheese. In the United States, Thomas Jefferson's household served macaroni dishes, and his enslaved chef James Hemings, trained in France, is often credited with helping popularise pasta there. Recipes for baked macaroni and cheese appear in American cookbooks from the early nineteenth century.

Baked and stovetop

In African American and Southern cooking, macaroni and cheese is usually baked, often with egg in the custard and several cheeses, then cut into squares. It is a fixture of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Sunday dinner. Stovetop versions with a smooth sauce are faster. Boxed versions with powdered cheese, sold since the 1930s, made it a cheap everyday meal across North America.

Where it is used

ThanksgivingSunday dinnerWeeknight supper

The cheeses in it

ColbyA mild American melting cheese.Monterey JackAdds a smooth melt.American cheeseUsed for a very smooth sauce.

Also part of it, and being written: Cheddar cheese (The classic macaroni cheese cheese.).

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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