Liveblogging: Macaroni & Cheese from Scratch, Pt. 2

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Dec 25th 2005 @ 6:35PM

grating cheese for macaroni and cheese The penne pasta is al dente and hanging out in a colander on the counter. When I was growing up, my mother whipped me with a wet noodle if ever I forgot to rinse cooked spaghetti under cold water. Only recently have I found out that this is actually a bad idea (thanks, Mario, though I'm not exactly sure why it's bad), but still, I feel a little weird about leaving my penne unrinsed.

Now begins the sauce part, but here is where I have learned lesson #648 about Holiday cooking. Never assume that the satellite kitchen in which you're going to cook the Holiday ham ("satellite" meaning not your home base) is going to have all the equipment you need.

But in the deep recesses of my mother's "tupperware cabinet," I found a Benriner, the Japanese version of a mandoline. I grated a block of medium cheddar and Monterey jack that had been shoved in the freezer for a half hour to make it easier to grate to make 5 cups of shredded cheese. On the Benriner, the cheese actually came out looking more like long, flat noodles.

Filed Under: Vegetarian, Food Gadgets, Ingredients, How To, Methods
Tags: appetizers, baking, boiling, cheddar, cheddar cheese, cheese, dairy, dinner, food, food and drink, Gadgets, grains, hors doeuvres, jack cheese, lunch, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese, MacaroniAndCheese, monterey jack, pasta, west coast

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-25-2005 @10:00PM alps said... youre not sure why rinsing your pasta in cold water is bad?? And this is a food blog? this just turned into a sad day...
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12-25-2005 @10:57PM sarah said... merry christmas alps!

the lovely starchy residue that is on the noodles after cooking helps sauces adhere to the pasta, so rinsing it off isn't always a good thing. right, alps?

however, after draining pasta of cooking water, rinsing in cold water will help stop the cooking. that was sort of important in this macaroni and cheese since the whole thing would be cooking for an additional half hour in the oven.

thanks for letting me clear that up.

in korean cooking that i've learned, almost every noodle gets rinsed in cold water, some even get rinsed and thrown back into the cooking water in a few rounds.
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12-26-2005 @12:06PM alps said... PHEW! i'm glad you know, I got worried there for minute! I can't say I know anything about korean cooking, but that sounds interesting, i should try my hands at some authentic korean food some day (maybe you have recipes or know of good cook books?). As for the rinsing, I usually don't do caserole mac and cheese, but when I do I make sure to under cook it enough that it will finish in the sauce. I wonder though if there is a difference between the two when it is rinsed or under cooked and not rinsed? that sounds like a might tasty experiment to me!!

Happy Hanukkah!
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12-26-2005 @12:10PM alps said... oh and sorry if I sounded mean in the first post, I was just goofing around, probably too much holiday chear! Even though I am Jewish, my family still does chirstmas dinner, between four of us(although my little sister is 18 but still doesn't like wine, so its really 3 of us) we drank a bottle of white, a bottle of red and a half bottle of dessert wine! It was a great dinner but i digress, so sorry if it sounded harsh.
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