You probably already know that most cooks will tell you to cook your pasta to “al dente,” which just means that the pasta is tender with a little bite (instead of being mushy). The ingredient list for our mac and cheese recipe isn’t a long one and as you can imagine the type of pasta and cheese you use makes a big difference. The sauce should be well seasoned - not with lots of extra spices and ingredients, just simply with salt, pepper, and maybe a tiny bit of mustard to add a touch of tang.No mushy pasta! We prevent this two ways (I’ve shared them below).After baking there needs to still be enough sauce that’s not absorbed into the pasta so every bite is a creamy one. The sauce to pasta ratio is important to get right.

That said, I do think there are a few key elements for the best mac and cheese. To make delicious homemade mac and cheese, just cook up some pasta, then add the cheese sauce.There are lots of recipes for macaroni and cheese in the world and to be completely honest, I’d probably love most of them. Almost any cheese that melts well will work great in this sauce. You can use this sauce with SO many recipes but feel free to change up the cheese. Many recipes will use the sauce just like this (scalloped potatoes, for example). When the sauce is done, it will be thick like the consistency of gravy. You might need another 1/2 cup of milk if the sauce is super thick, but start with a smaller amount of milk. Start by adding about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of the milk and see what the sauce is like.

Whisking it in as a slow stream is the way to go. And then don’t dump the milk in all at once. Start by warming your milk just a bit – that helps. But it’s more forgiving than you would think. If you add the milk too fast, you’ll end up with lumps in your sauce. This is the part that scares some people. When whisking in the milk you need to do it slowly. Be sure to keep a close eye on this as it can burn, but you want it to turn a light tan color and it will smell really nutty when it’s at the right point. It's important to start the sauce by making a roux, which is a fancy word for a butter and flour paste. It just requires a few basic ingredients: Butter, flour, milk and cheese, of course!

all of them become very possible once you master how to make cheese sauce. Just think of the possibilities! Macaroni and cheese, Tex-Mex queso, casseroles. If there’s a simple technique that every home cook should master, it’s probably making a really good cheese sauce. Whether you want to dial up your mac and cheese or make an easy hot cheese dip for the party, here's how it's done.

Roux cheese sauce for mac and cheese