- 8 minutes ago
Chef Clare Malfitano of Murray's Cheese shares how to make the ultimate baked mac and cheese. From building a silky Mornay sauce from scratch and choosing the best pasta shape for maximum cheese coverage, to creating a crispy, golden cheese crust, discover the secrets behind one of New York's most popular mac and cheese recipes.
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00:04I'm Chef Clara Malfitano, the chef de cuisine for Murray's Cheese, and today I'm going to show you how to
00:09make the world's best mac and cheese.
00:14Here at our Bleecker Street location, the flagship store, we make upwards of 30 tons of mac and cheese every
00:21year.
00:22We're bringing our expertise in cheese to mac and cheese.
00:25So we're very intentional with the ingredients that we choose, whether it be the pasta, the cheeses that we shred
00:32for inside, and the way that we prepare the mac and cheese.
00:39For our cheese sauce, we'll start by infusing some whole milk with aromatics.
00:43And that fat that you get in the whole milk is really gonna add flavor, but it also isn't too
00:50fatty so that it will break the sauce.
00:52Using onion is a great way to infuse some flavor that's a little bit of a kick.
00:57The thyme really adds some savory notes, some herbiness that we need.
01:02Just to layer, I think these two flavors really complement cheddar.
01:06We're making a sachet, so I'm just adding the sliced onion, and then I'll add the thyme to some cheesecloth.
01:15And that's just gonna make the infusion very easy.
01:18And when I'm ready to remove and feel the flavor's been imparted enough, I can just pull it out.
01:23And we really just wanna put it over medium-low heat.
01:27We're not trying to bring it to a boil.
01:30It's really below a simmer.
01:32I would just stir it occasionally because you will see that the milk could stick to the bottom.
01:38Infusing the milk really adds flavors at the very start of the recipe.
01:43Really, any recipe, you wanna build flavor from the beginning.
01:47Now that the milk is infused, we'll begin our roux by melting some butter.
01:51A roux is a thickening agent.
01:53It really just allows for a sauce to thicken.
01:57Once it's fully melted, we'll begin adding the flour.
02:00You really wanna stir, make sure you're getting everything mixed together.
02:05You're honestly going for almost what looks like an applesauce texture.
02:09This is gonna add some structure and stability to the sauce that really helps it coat the pasta.
02:17It's gonna begin bubbling, and I've always been taught that it smells like Christmas cookies,
02:23and that's how you know that a blonde roux is done.
02:25So we've been cooking the roux for about five minutes.
02:28You can see that we've achieved this texture that almost looks like pancake batter.
02:34So this is the exact color that we want.
02:36Now that our roux is ready, our next step will be adding in the infused milk.
02:40We wanna make sure we're stirring the whole time, otherwise it could get lumpy.
02:45You do wanna have a plastic spatula handy just to scrape the sides so you don't get pieces of roux
02:52like that stuck.
02:53It will thicken up very quickly, and that will give us a bechamel.
02:57Bechamel is just cooked milk that's been thickened and infused with aromatics.
03:03There's no shame in eating box mac and cheese at home.
03:06I'm a big fan, that's what I grew up with.
03:09And I would say you can easily docker it up by adding sour cream, cottage cheese,
03:15another shredded cheese that you love and really amping up the cheesiness.
03:19So it's been about seven minutes since we infused the milk into the roux.
03:25We've been patiently stirring and now we've got a great thickness.
03:29You can see it's not dripping like water.
03:31It's having more resistance and clinging to the whisk.
03:34Now we can make the bechamel into a Mornay sauce.
03:37Mornay sauce is just a fancy word for cheese sauce.
03:41So high moisture mozzarella melts really, really nicely and the flavor isn't overpowering.
03:47And that's what makes it a great blank canvas.
03:50We'll add more shredded mozzarella in later when we mix our pasta and sauce together.
03:57And that is really for the cheese pull and less about the flavor.
04:04We'll add some cream cheese.
04:05It really adds a nice tanginess and acidity, really balances out the salt,
04:12takes away any sweetness that might be present from the cooked milk.
04:17So we're just making sure that the cream cheese is fully melted.
04:22So it didn't look too thick when we removed it from the stove,
04:26but now adding the cheese, the cream cheese,
04:28it's really added a lot of body to the sauce.
04:31And that's really going to cling to the pasta.
04:34Takes a little arm strength.
04:36It's really almost like a cake batter at this point.
04:38Worked out all those lumps and now we can add the mustard.
04:43The acidity really lightens it up.
04:45It makes it possible for you to eat a good helping of mac and cheese in one sitting.
04:50I am going to add kosher salt as well.
04:53So we're going to hit really a lot of different flavors and that will create complexity in the sauce.
04:59I think another mistake that people make in the kitchen is not tasting their food as they go.
05:05So I think that's perfect.
05:07A pro tip that we do recommend if you're using your sauce today like we are,
05:11is to make a cartouche to avoid a skin developing on top of the sauce.
05:17From here, we'll start cooking the pasta so we can mix our mac and cheese and bake it in the
05:22oven.
05:25Here at Murray's Cheese, we use radiatore pasta for our mac and cheese.
05:30As you can see, it's shaped like an old-timey radiator.
05:33And those grooves really allow for maximum cheese sauce coverage.
05:38It's very important to salt your water before cooking your pasta.
05:42You want to be very generous with your salt.
05:44I'd say close to a tablespoon per quart of water.
05:49Don't be afraid to taste your water.
05:51If it doesn't taste salty, probably not enough salt to infuse into your pasta.
05:56Our cook time is very short, only six minutes.
06:00In the first minute of cooking, it's important to stir the pasta.
06:04This will prevent it from sticking to each other and then also sticking to the bottom.
06:08We cook it to al dente.
06:10So it's still going to have a bite to it and it won't be fully cooked through.
06:15We're going to cook our mac and cheese with the sauce in the oven.
06:18So we don't want it to become mushy.
06:20We still want the structural integrity of the pasta.
06:24Don't be afraid to experiment with fun shapes.
06:26If you can't find radiatore in your local grocery store,
06:30I definitely recommend a cavatappi.
06:33Musili is nice.
06:35It has a lot of grooves that will catch the sauce.
06:37Even a shell is really fun because it does capture that sauce,
06:41but it's not going to capture the sauce in a heat bomb kind of like a rigatoni would.
06:47I love macaroni.
06:48I think it doesn't capture the sauce in the same way as our radiatore does.
06:54It doesn't have grooves.
06:56The holes are a little too small to even really take in very much.
07:01But it's a fun shape.
07:02We'll leave the stove to strain the water from our pasta.
07:06You don't want to rinse your pasta.
07:09That really washes the starch away from the pasta
07:12and makes it much more difficult for a sauce to cling.
07:15And especially for a mac and cheese, you really want that sauce to cling to the pasta.
07:19If you're not using your pasta immediately, we recommend spreading it out on a sheet pan
07:24and allowing it to cool in an even layer so that it doesn't overcook.
07:30Once the pasta is cooled, we can assemble our mac and cheese and get it in the oven.
07:38So these are the three cheeses that we use for our classic mac and cheese.
07:42I think a great rule of thumb kind of like cook with the wine that you would drink is cook
07:46with the cheese that you would eat,
07:48while keeping in mind that high moisture is what's going to make it really, really silky and smooth.
07:53You want to avoid cheeses that are heavily aged because they won't melt in the same way that these cheeses
07:59do.
07:59So we already have our pre-shredded high moisture mozzarella.
08:03We add even more at this point, not really for the flavor, but for the cheese pull.
08:08So this is our red wax gouda. It is very high moisture and delicious.
08:14It's going to impart a lot of buttery flavor and add richness.
08:20It would contribute similar flavors as a Havarti, I would say.
08:24I'm using a box grater. I'm going on a finer shred.
08:28This is our New York State white cheddar.
08:31It's going to add some great acidity that we want to balance the other flavors.
08:36So gouda does have a little bit of sweetness.
08:40That acidity is going to tamper that down.
08:44Now we'll mix them so we can top our mac and cheese.
08:48So we'll add all of our cooked pasta to the bowl.
08:51I would say we can probably serve about 30 to 40 people with this amount of mac.
08:57I'm going to add the cheese sauce into our pasta and shredded cheese.
09:01Now the gloved hands, I'm going to mix everything together.
09:05So every piece of pasta is coated with sauce.
09:09At this point, the sauce is still warm, but it's not hot enough to melt the cheese.
09:15We want the oven to melt the cheese that's inside and then also on top of the mac and cheese.
09:21I always find this very relaxing. Mixing, making sure everything's incorporated.
09:27This is the point of no return.
09:29So we want to taste our cheese sauce on our pasta.
09:33And that will let us know if we need to add any last minute salt before we begin baking.
09:40I think it's good.
09:40So we'll be using a small baking dish to make our mac and cheese today.
09:45We recommend a baking dish that isn't too tall.
09:49You really want to make sure that your mac and cheese is heated all the way through before it gets
09:54too brown on the top.
09:55You don't want to really mound it because that kind of makes it hard to heat all the way through.
10:00You also don't want to push it down too much because, again, it's going to be very dense, hard to
10:06heat it all the way through before the cheese browns all the way.
10:09Now we'll top our mac and cheese with our remaining cheese and then bake it in the oven.
10:14We do not add breadcrumbs. We let the cheese do all the work.
10:17It's going to toast in the oven and become golden brown and crispy.
10:21And you'll actually get the really delicious cooked toasted cheese flavor of Cheez-Its.
10:28I promise this isn't a Cheez-Its commercial.
10:30This is actually an item that we referenced quite a bit as we were developing the recipe,
10:35as we were aiming for the end goal of what we wanted the cheese crust to taste like.
10:40So our classic mac and cheese is ready for the oven.
10:43We'll bake it at 375 for about 10 to 12 minutes.
10:47And it's going to get nice and golden brown on the top and be really nice and warm and bubbly
10:52around the edges.
10:53And that will tell us that the inside is heated through.
10:56So we've got perfect golden brown deliciousness.
10:59This is exactly what we're looking for when we're baking the mac and cheese in the oven.
11:04So all of that caramelization is going to give that Cheez-It flavor that we want.
11:09And you can see it's kind of bubbled over a little bit.
11:11We've got those nice crunchy bits to snack on, but it's just absolutely perfect.
11:16You can enjoy this right out of the oven.
11:18It's going to be very hot.
11:20You don't need to wait for it to settle or anything like that.
11:23The great debate, fork versus spoon for mac and cheese.
11:27I am team fork.
11:29Gotta get a crust piece here.
11:37Totally getting the Cheez-It notes.
11:39Really creamy.
11:40The sauce is so smooth.
11:41The pasta is not mushy.
11:43That al dente cook that we did on the stove makes it perfect in the end.
11:49As somebody who's eaten mac and cheese probably every day for the last seven and a half years,
11:55I could eat this whole thing.
11:56So you can see the Radiatori really has a ton of cheese sauce.
12:01The cheese on top.
12:03You can see the crust.
12:04Like, look at that crispy piece.
12:07Cheez-It flavor.
12:09Nice crunch.
12:10In contrast with the pasta.
12:13So good.
12:14Mac and cheese is a simple dish.
12:16So putting intention behind the ingredients you're using really delivers in the end products.
12:22I think a velvety sauce.
12:25A pasta that still has texture.
12:27A lot of flavor complexity from cheeses.
12:30Really is going to make an absolutely delicious mac and cheese.
12:34And I feel like cooking for yourself is the greatest form of self-care.
12:39So putting intention into that self-care really makes a beautiful end product.