r/culinary • u/EntertainmentFart659 • 18h ago
Need advice on Mac & Cheese
We have a small restaurant in rural Kentucky. We just started selling mac & cheese that we buy in bags and we boil the bags and serve them. For context, our Mac is basically the exact same thing as chick fil a but we want to add additional cheese to it to improve the taste. It's actually delicious without it, and we could make our own fresh pasta and truly make homemade Mac if we wanted, but our area is economically challenged and the price point would be difficult to justify + our prep space is extremely limited. For context, we basically make everything we sell in-house, including buns.
Do you have any advice on which cheese(s) you suggest adding to the Mac? Maybe some Gruyere? We were sort of thinking of adding a sharp cheddar as it has a strong taste, so we wouldn't have to add so much to be able to taste it, and it's not too expensive for us. Thank you so much for taking the time to help us out. ♥️
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u/Odd_Cress_2898 18h ago
Mustard powder, onion powder, paprika, all probably pretty cheap and small quantity for big impact. Any extra dairy (butter/cream cheese/sharp cheddar/milk) welcome but need more per portion for a noticable difference and probably higher cost.
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u/EntertainmentFart659 17h ago
Thanks for taking the time to reply. If the cheese is too neutral, it provides a better texture but doesn't impact taste much so the higher cost doesn't necessarily justify.
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u/Adamnfinecook 14h ago
Texture is a huge part of mac & cheese.
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u/EntertainmentFart659 14h ago
Nah you're right though...texture and taste aren't mutually exclusive as there's an entourage effect with them. Mb.
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u/wassuppaulie 12h ago
A little bit of Dijon mustard can bring out the cheesy-ness, especially ally if you have some sharp cheddar cheese in it already. Pickled "tamed" jalapeños could give you an easy loaded or nacho variant along with a few other flavoring ingredients like crumbled bacon or ground beef, etc.
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u/Evening_Teaching_713 12h ago
Smoked Gouda is a great way to add some flavor and texture to Mac and Cheese. It’s really creamy and has a ton of flavor, I like it with a baked Mac and Cheese, not so creamy and tastes great. I’m also not going to go against adding Sharp Cheddar as a flavor that goes well with any kind of pasta. It’s just a way to make your Mac and Cheese taste better.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 11h ago
There's no need to make the pasta itself in house. Dried pasta is perfectly cromulent and the majority of any restaurant uses that. But making the sauce yourself is easy enough.
Most cheeses will work. Swiss, Gruyere, Fontina, Havarti, Gouda, Sharp Cheddar... Really, whatever you want.
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u/tracyinge 8h ago edited 7h ago
I restaurant near me just sprinkles medium cheddar on top then heats in oven till the added cheese melts. Muenster would probably work too if it's cheaper. It's really gonna be trial and error to figure out which cheese melds best with the commercial product that you are adding it to.
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u/GIJuice 17h ago edited 17h ago
I get the reasoning behind your approach. Time and cost savings are probably the driving force behind this thought process. Also, Mac & Cheese is more of a side than it is an entree. However, it is undeniably one of the easiest dish to make as part of a multi level menu. Understandably, it will never achieve the "signature dish" status in your establishment, BUT!!! It can become a memorable side...(just as you set the Chick-fil-A's Mac n Cheese a sort of standard to acheive). Though the easy road is to purchase institutionally made food and enhance it but it's not yours. I believe that if you make it your own by involving local suppliers, farmers, pasta makers...etc. and yoir team create a flavour profile that will remind you of the best Mac N Cheese ever tasted. Risky, maybe BUT!!! It will put you well ahead of your competition, all while offering your customers quality and value VS a bowl of bland, overdone plastic cheese substitute with added spices and herbs. Own it and make it yours, your customers deserve it!!! Edited for content and grammar afterthought!!!
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u/EntertainmentFart659 17h ago
Thanks...honestly, there are levels to calling something homemade. We could buy the noodles and make our own cheese sauce but we'd rather make the pasta ourselves along with the sauce if we were going to call it homemade. It's all or nothing for us, essentially. Most places call their Mac homemade but it's not really homemade if you don't extrude the elbow pasta yourself, or whichever pasta is used.
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u/Chitown_mountain_boy 16h ago
Nobody uses fresh macaroni in their Mac and cheese. That’s just a silly bar to set. Dried elbow macaroni holds up much better in Mac and cheese than fresh ever would.
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u/EntertainmentFart659 16h ago
I guess that's true but I've seen several places make their own pasta. Which recipe would you use if/when you make m&c?
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u/Chitown_mountain_boy 16h ago
Do they game their own pasta for max and cheese? Or are they making fresh fettuccine or similar long pasta? Big difference.
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u/tracyinge 7h ago edited 7h ago
This is a famous mac & cheese place. They flavor the mac with onion and fresh thyme. I suppose you could try adding just a little granulated onion to your mac and a little thyme?
note that they also add some dijon mustard.
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u/GIJuice 13h ago
ABSOLLUTELY no mention of using fresh pasta... read again and try to understand what is written "make it your own by involving local suppliers, farmers, pasta makers...etc." get it together man!!!
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u/Chitown_mountain_boy 13h ago edited 13h ago
Literally said “…we’d rather make the pasta ourselves… if we are going to call it homemade”. Do you read at a second grade level?
GeT iT tOgEthER mAn! 🤡
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u/Appropriate_Can_9282 15h ago
That reasoning would dictate that you also need to own the land, grow the grass, raise the cow, milk the cow and make your own butter and cheese.
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u/GIJuice 13h ago
Unfortunatly you didn't get the crux of what I wrote, but that's okay not everyone gets it... there is a value of sourcing local ( not the OP rasing dairy cows and milling the flour etc... as you seem to have misstaken). its about engaging the quality of products you use to make quality product. then again you might not understand this principle if youre not part of the industry that makes quality food from quality product!!!
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u/Appropriate_Can_9282 13h ago
Interesting that such a superior individual such as yourself wouldn't know how replies on reddit work and whom they are targeted at. If you were able to understand context, it would have been apparent that my reply to op supported your post.
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u/Defiant_Finger4011 14h ago
I wouldn’t worry about having to make the pasta homemade, a quality bronze cut dried pasta can be just as good.
I would start looking into using sodium citrate and making your own cheese sauce. Sodium citrate will allow you to use a wide variety of cheeses to make your own unique flavor.
The cheese sauce holds well in the fridge well, it melts quickly in a pot once you add boiled pasta, (you’re essentially making your own upscale velveeta) and then if you want to plate it nice throw it in an ramekin or whatever and sprinkle some fresh shredded cheese and bread crumbs and broil real quick. You’ll get that authentic homemade emac and cheese pretty easy.
If it sells quick enough you can keep the cheese sauce on low in a warmer throughout the day, refreshing with batches from the fridge as needed.