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CorneliusPhoton wrote: »I know what a roux is and I use cheddar cheese to make mac and cheese, but I admit to have microwaved a block of velveeta with a can of rotel tomatoes. Pretty good as a dip.
The entire point of velveeta is to make cheese dip with rotel. The stuff doesn't even taste like cheese if you accidentally eat some plain.2 -
We don't get rotel or equivalent here, I've always been curious.
What is American cheese like? Is it similar to mild cheddar?0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »We don't get rotel or equivalent here, I've always been curious.
What is American cheese like? Is it similar to mild cheddar?
It's kinda like sliced velveeta texture-wise. Kinda gummy. Taste-wise, it's hard without having some right in front of me, but I'd say somewhere between mild cheddar and hotdog.1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »The cheddar that is commonly available at the market usually comes in mild, sharp, extra sharp, and recently I saw something called "seriously sharp." For me, the sharper the better, because it means I can have more flavor for fewer calories.
There are some artisanal cheese producers that make some interesting cheeses. Of course and Vermont and Wisconsin are known as big cheese producers. I live in an area of New York State that has a number of dairies and is becoming known for some nice cheeses, though I think they are specializing in young cheeses. There's a new one I can't remember the name of that I'm looking forward to trying. Personally, I'd love to have some goats and make my own.
Yeah, there are tons of artisanal cheese producers in the US. I think it's a shame that people assume we don't have them, sometimes.
I am currently a big fan of a variety of goat cheeses in different styles from a farm that comes to my favorite green market (since I adore blue cheeses I normally get their regular blue, called Black Goat, but they have a special blue only available a couple of times a year that I am hoping is available on Saturday).
I also love the cheeses (American and imported) from this place: https://www.pastoralartisan.com/. They come with hilarious tasting notes too, which I like (I'm easy that way). (But given the conversation, I should add that the selection even at my local WF is really good.)
Some of the US cheeses on the current tasting menu from one of the locations (they also have non-domestic cheeses on the tasting menu, of course):
Petit Nuage (sheep) - Landmark Creamery - Wisconsin (airy, lemony, decadent)
Cremont (cow and goat) - Vermont Creamery - Vermont (tangy, rich, cheesecake)
Batch #13 (cow, goat, sheep) Doe Run Dairy - Pennsylvania (fruit loops, pine nuts, toothsome)
Rosa Maria (goat) - Dutch Girl Creamery - Nebraska (beautiful spanish lady)
Juvindale (cow) - Meadowood Farms - New York (meaty, unctuous, velvet)
Dorset (cow) - Consider Bardwell - Vermont (strawberry fields, custard)
Barren County Blue (raw cow) - Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese - Kentucky (bacon, cracker jacks, earth)
This is a wealth of yummy information that must be thoroughly researched and verified. Luckily I am up to the task!1 -
CorneliusPhoton wrote: »I know what a roux is and I use cheddar cheese to make mac and cheese, but I admit to have microwaved a block of velveeta with a can of rotel tomatoes. Pretty good as a dip.
The entire point of velveeta is to make cheese dip with rotel. The stuff doesn't even taste like cheese if you accidentally eat some plain.
Rotel dip, and to supplement my homemade mac n cheese. Similar to some of the versions discussed here - I start with a roux, which turns into a bechamel, but when it comes time to add cheeses - I do a blend: sharp cheddar, smoked cheddar, fontina, and a bit of velveeta. Nothing really compares to getting that creamy/meltiness like velveeta. Then I pour it all in a buttered casserole dish and sprinkle a mix of melted butter, panko breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese- sprinkle smoked paprika over the whole thing for a nice color.
Also, I actually prefer to make a spinach queso dip with queso blanco velveeta (used to be able to find pepper jack velveeta but I think they discontinued), rotel, thawed frozen spinach, diced jalapenos, diced onion, lime juice, and cumin. Super yummy and much preferred to the traditional rotel party dip...3 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »We don't get rotel or equivalent here, I've always been curious.
What is American cheese like? Is it similar to mild cheddar?
Just go to McD's and order a cheeseburger. That's American cheese.0 -
geneticsteacher wrote: »My Mom always started mac & cheese with a proper butter/flour roux - and then added 2 lbs. of Velveeta
Mine too! When we were having soup for dinner, my mom would bring out a sleeve or two of saltines and the velveeta box (it was a velveeta-sized rectangular Tupperware with lid) and the rolling cheese slicer. My dad was the primary slicer, as he could get you a paper-thin slice of velveeta. Then that went on the saltines and was eaten alongside the soup (never in the soup).0 -
I am conflicted on the matter of breadcrumbs. Yes, it adds crunch, but it detracts from the bubbly cheesiness. I can never quite make my mind up between cheesy breadcrumbs or just a layer of grated cheese.
Sometimes I add ham to the sauce, or bits of fried bacon.2 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »I am conflicted on the matter of breadcrumbs. Yes, it adds crunch, but it detracts from the bubbly cheesiness. I can never quite make my mind up between cheesy breadcrumbs or just a layer of grated cheese.
Same, I don't get breadcrumbs either.0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »I am conflicted on the matter of breadcrumbs. Yes, it adds crunch, but it detracts from the bubbly cheesiness. I can never quite make my mind up between cheesy breadcrumbs or just a layer of grated cheese.
Sometimes I add ham to the sauce, or bits of fried bacon.
My husband doesn't care for baked macaroni at all - he prefers the stovetop creamy kind, which is esssentially what mine starts out as before I put it in the casserole dish. I like both kinds, but find that the baked with breadcrumbs feels a bit fancier...1 -
Is the practice of serving mac and cheese as a side dish confined to the South, or is that a general thing? I remember being invited for dinner by an American couple in our church (from Georgia I think?) and being intrigued by all the sides. The meatloaf and mashed potatoes were not surprising, but the mac and cheese took me unawares - it was like being served dinner with dinner on the side. There was also a dish that was more like a pineapple cobbler than anything else, and I have never seen someone put jam on dinner rolls to serve with the main meal. It was all delicious, but very new to me.0
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I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did. 1
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CorneliusPhoton wrote: »I am from the north east of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.
I'm gonna go with this too. All of it. Except that I'm of German and Italian descent. 1 -
CorneliusPhoton wrote: »I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.
I never heard of mac and cheese until I came to the US, honestly. Sometimes in France I had pasta with gruyere cheese but we typically had red sauce too (but yes it was our main dish when we had it). And WAY less cheese.
But I love cheese so getting used to mac and cheese really wasn't hard. I just find it hard to get really good mac and cheese, and it has so many calories when it is.. I just don't bother.0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »Is the practice of serving mac and cheese as a side dish confined to the South, or is that a general thing? I remember being invited for dinner by an American couple in our church (from Georgia I think?) and being intrigued by all the sides. The meatloaf and mashed potatoes were not surprising, but the mac and cheese took me unawares - it was like being served dinner with dinner on the side. There was also a dish that was more like a pineapple cobbler than anything else, and I have never seen someone put jam on dinner rolls to serve with the main meal. It was all delicious, but very new to me.
It's common here (Chicago), but I think it comes from soul food (so the south). That's actually the avenue by which I became familiar with real mac and cheese (I like breadcrumbs), as one of my friends back in my 20s was dating a guy who cooked at a soul food restaurant.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »CattOfTheGarage wrote: »Is the practice of serving mac and cheese as a side dish confined to the South, or is that a general thing? I remember being invited for dinner by an American couple in our church (from Georgia I think?) and being intrigued by all the sides. The meatloaf and mashed potatoes were not surprising, but the mac and cheese took me unawares - it was like being served dinner with dinner on the side. There was also a dish that was more like a pineapple cobbler than anything else, and I have never seen someone put jam on dinner rolls to serve with the main meal. It was all delicious, but very new to me.
It's common here (Chicago), but I think it comes from soul food (so the south). That's actually the avenue by which I became familiar with real mac and cheese (I like breadcrumbs), as one of my friends back in my 20s was dating a guy who cooked at a soul food restaurant.
One day I will have real, proper, super yum soul food. It will be a good day.0 -
CorneliusPhoton wrote: »I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.
My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)
Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.0 -
I learned the difference between yankee and southern mac & cheese from one of my students - in the South, they add eggs to the mac & cheese so it is firm, and then cut it in square to serve it. In the northern states, we like to serve it creamy and sloppy with a spoon.1
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geneticsteacher wrote: »I learned the difference between yankee and southern mac & cheese from one of my students - in the South, they add eggs to the mac & cheese so it is firm, and then cut it in square to serve it. In the northern states, we like to serve it creamy and sloppy with a spoon.
Lived in the south all my life. Eggs don't go in mac & cheese.3 -
This thread has morphed into yarning about my two favourites.
Chocolate and cheese.
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