These 7 Cheeses Will Give You The Best Mac & Cheese In Town

Makinze Gore – Yesterday 8:46 AMFollowReactComments|31

If there’s one thing we hate, it’s a bad batch of mac and cheese. What a terrible waste of a wonderful concept! The number-one mistake when making mac at home, aside from a cooking error like over-boiling the noodles, is using the wrong kind of cheese to start with. The type you choose is extremely important for the taste and texture of the sauce.© Parker FeierbachDelish.com tested to find the best cheeses for mac & cheese and which ones to avoid.

The main qualification you should look for in a cheese for this dish: It needs to melt well. THAT’S IT. It seems obvious, but not all cheeses melt easily. After what felt like an endless amount of testing for our quest to find *the* perfect recipe, we discovered which cheeses work best…and which ones to avoid at all costs.

The Best Types of Cheese

1. Sharp Cheddar

The king of all cheeses when it comes to coating your noodles. With a fairly low melting point, cheddar keeps things smooth. It’s also got the classic taste you’re looking for and expecting with mac and cheese. Sharp cheddar is ideal because its flavor is strongest, but the most important to thing to remember is to always buy cheddar in a block and grate your own! Pre-shredded simply doesn’t work, which we will explain more in a bit.

2. Gouda

Gouda is a seriously underrated cheese when it comes to cooking! It melts beautifully and gives your mac a sophisticated taste without being too pretentious (or turning off picky eaters).

3. Gruyère

Despite it being a hard cheese, Gruyère still melts nicely. Its saltiness helps cut through all the heavy fats, and the nutty flavor is so special.

4. Cream Cheese

Gallery: 15 Types of Steak Everyone Should Know (Taste of Home)

1 of 16 Photos in Gallery©Lisovskaya Natalia/Shutterstock

Filet Mignon

Filet mignon is the name of the steak cut from the beef tenderloin, a long, cylindrical muscle that runs along the spine. It’s one of the most expensive cuts of beef because the muscle doesn’t get much work, and it’s so tender you could cut through it with a fork. Because they’re already tender, they don’t require a marinade, so try pairing the steak instead with a flavorful sauce or butter like in merlot filet mignon.

How to Cook It: The steaks have almost no fat content, so you definitely don’t want to overcook them, or they will dry out.  Simply dress the filet up with salt, pepper and any herbs you like. Then, cook it in a cast-iron skillet until it reaches a rare or medium-rare temperature. Learn more about how to cook steak in a cast-iron skillet.

We’re no strangers to cream cheese here in the Delish test kitchen, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when we confirmed that it’s perfect in mac & cheese. It melts down easily and helps keep the sauce smooth with just the right amount of salt and tang. It works exceptionally well in a slow-cooker mac & cheese!Health Club POS Software – Grow Your Fitness BusinessAdhealth-club.mindbodyonline.com

5. Brie

We use brie in our mac when we are feeling extra fancy. The creaminess is excellent for coating your noodles, and it creates the most decadent mac and cheese. Just be sure to remove the rind first!

You can even go crazy and make brie mac & cheese right inside your wheel of brie!

6. Goat Cheese

Extra tangy and extra creamy—we just love goat cheese. The flavor sticks around, even after all the milk and cream get added. It’s a nice change of pace, an unexpected twist in the world of mac.

7. Parmesan

We could never make a list of the best cheeses and leave out Parmesan. Best for sprinkling atop your mac before it hits the oven (or again when serving), Parmesan also adds a much desired salty and nutty flavor that’s unbeatable. The higher quality, the better for this one!

The Worst Types of Cheese

1. Anything pre-shredded

The best way to ruin your mac is to dump a bunch of pre-shredded cheese in there. Packaged shredded cheese have added preservatives to keep the pieces from sticking together and to keep the cheese in stores longer. Those preservatives keep the pieces from melting evenly, and you’ll end up with gritty, lumpy mac & cheese.

2. Feta

Dry, crumbly cheeses like feta or cotija are not ideal. With their high moisture levels, they don’t melt properly and will leave you with clumps of cheese instead of a smooth sauce.

3. Monterey Jack

Please don’t get me started on Monterey jack. It might melt well but it does. not. taste. right. I ‘m a huge cheese fan, and this is one I’ll never touch. It tastes like nothing and leaves a terrible aftertaste. Strong opinion, but someone has to say it!