Very good! One of the best mac & cheese recipes I've used. My additions: 1/2 tsp. dry mustard, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and 1/2 tsp. salt. The mustard adds a bit more flavor. As for a floury taste if you cook the sauce until it is "just boiling" it will alleviate the problem (don't reduce the flour or it will never get thick). Remove from heat and let set for a couple minutes before adding the cheese, this prevents the cheese from melting too hot and getting "grainy". I'll make this over and over. An update of my review: Many reviewers are saying the sauce never ‘gets thick’. It’s *not supposed* to “get thick”. It will be a creamy-textured sauce when mixed with the macaroni. It thickens and absorbs as it bakes in the oven. When making the sauce, use the standard above: Bring it to “just boiling”, period. That is the consistency it is supposed to be! When you take the dish out of the oven it will be perfect! ****Another update**** This recipe just keeps getting “favorite-er and favorite-er”! I’ve had a lot of company this summer and so as to stay out of the kitchen and visit I’m now using the crock-pot. (I triple the recipe and use several kinds of cheese. Omit the bacon for vegetarian guest and it’s still great.) Make the sauce the night before, let cool some, add the cheese, stir & refrigerate. In the morning, cook the noodles, al dente, and mix with the sauce in the crock-pot. Cover and cook on low, about 5 hours, just in time for a late lunch. Stir well before ser
OK, so I'll admit it's a little bland; so jazz it up the way you want! The "flour taste" complaints are because you all don't let the roux cook long enough! It's actually a pretty simple cooking technique that if you follow it, the sauce will thicken immediately. Like the recipe says, add the milk SLOWLY! To make it even easier, heat the milk slightly and then add it to the sauce. Just don't add it all at once, the sauce will seize and become lumpy. This is a great recipe for a basic sauce or one of the mother sauces called a Bechamel sauce or white sauce. Once you master this sauce, you can master anything that is cream based, like mac & cheese or a chowder or cream soup....just be patient. Good things come to those who wait! :)
I'm giving this great recipe 5 stars, but I made it slightly differently. No bacon. I made caramelized onions, which tasted excellent in the dish so I recommend it for sure. The cheese sauce which is made from a roux needs to be modified. Once you have melted the butter, added the flour and then milk, you need to simmer the mixture over low heat for about 8-10 minutes & stir occasionally making sure it does not burn. This is to cook down the flour and make a nice paste. Then add the cheese, and some nutmeg always adds that extra perfect touch to cheese sauce. I also added some garlic powder and cayanne. I love this recipe and next time I will throw in some stewed tomatoes as well. Thank you for sharing!!
Well I hate to be in the minority but I won't be making this one again. My husband is a purist and did not like the onions in his M&C. There is a floury taste which surprised me. Perhaps cornstarch would be a better thickener. This will not be made in our house again:-(
There are 2 things you don't add a lot of onion to. Pasta and seafood. They are delicate and are overpowered. What you taste is onion you don't get the wonderful taste of other ingredients. When I get recipes with a lot of onions I replace with fresh chives to give a more delicate taste and flavor. This was overpowered with onions.
This was good. Even my husband who is not a fan of mac and cheese enjoyed this. The only thing I did was I sauteed the onions in a little bit of the bacon drippings and I added some pepper in step 3 otherwise great recipe.
I read the other reviews before making this and therefore put 3 whole cups of shredded cheese to help thicken and up the flavor of the sauce. I also used SHARP cheddar and thank heavens I did otherwise I think this would have been too bland. I more than doubled the bacon and used 11oz of large elbow macaroni. Used the onion and garlic just as suggested and used a sweet onion. The sauce took FOREVER to thicken. The bottom line was that with these modifications I thought the flavor was fantastic. My husband liked it too but thought it wasn't different enough to warrant all the trouble particularly the stirring time on the sauce.
Though this recipe was great for anyone making their first mac n cheese and the cookin instructions were good the recipe itself needed quite a bit of work. First of Im an onion lover and it was even too much for me. Half and onion is just the right amount.I added an extra cup on cheddar to the sauce aswell as a couple tsps of garlic salt. And topped it off by sprinkling 6 saltines mixed with a table spoon of melted butter on top.
I thought this was a great recipe and my boyfriend even enjoyed it for lunch the following couple of days. I'm a little skiddish of too much onion so I used one small yellow onion and it was perfect. I also like to take short cuts so instead of grating cheese I bought already shredded cheese and instead of cooking a couple slices of bacon I used 1 tbsp of Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits. The bacon bits are awesome and can be used for so many things I keep a bag in the fridge for just such recipes. I heated about a tsp of olive oil in a pan and sauted the onion garlic and bacon bits all together. I will certainly make this dish again.
