Don't Break The 6 Golden Rules Of Making Mac & Cheese

Here are my top tips for how to make the best mac & cheese ever. Because sometimes the boxed stuff just isn’t good enough.

We are a nation of mac & cheese lovers. Whether you’re using a plastic cup in the microwave, cheese dust from a packet, or cooking it from scratch, you’ve probably made this classic comfort food at least once. But have you ever made the ultimate version?

I started making mac & cheese when I was five with help from the blue box. I’ve come a long way since then, cooking other people’s recipes and experimenting with my own. For this article, I consulted with Clare Malfitano, chef at Murray’s Cheese, to get her unique perspective. Here are my top tips for how to make the best mac & cheese of your life—because sometimes the boxed stuff just isn’t good enough.

1. Grab the Right Pasta

Choosing the ideal pasta is key. You want a shape that will hold as much cheese as possible without getting completely lost in it. (We’re not making cheese pasta soup here.) For me, that’s cavatappi. With two or three twists per piece, these little corkscrews are perfect for trapping the maximum amount of cheesy sauce and compact enough to so multiple noodles can fit on your fork at once. Is it traditional? No. Does it make a superior mac & cheese? Absolutely.

2. Choose a Cheese Trifecta

Sure, one or two cheeses will make a decent mac & cheese. But to make the best mac & cheese of your life, you’ll need to spring for a trifecta. You should have three different cheeses, each playing a different role in your cheese sauce. Malfitano agrees: “With three cheeses…you get a great balance of flavor. You can pull in acidity, salinity, umami, and other flavors.” Here’s how this trifecta breaks down.

You need a solid “base cheese” to bring the foundation of flavor to your sauce. Malfitano prefers cheddar (as do I), but other options include monterey or colby jack. Anything that melts well and carries a strong, but not overwhelming, cheese flavor.

You need a funky cheese with an assertive flavor profile, like gruyere or fontina. Don’t be afraid of strong flavor here: this cheese’s job is to give your sauce extra dimension. Malfitano prefers French raclette, a washed rind cheese with a pungent nature. She says that while people might be unsure about the smell of this cheese, it “creates a mac you can’t stop eating.”

• For a finishing touch, you need a sharp, aged cheese with a salty zing to make that sauce pop. I love Parmigiano Reggiano here. Other great options include parmesan, pecorino romano, aged provolone, or even manchego. You’ll only use a little of this cheese—a few ounces at most—but it’s absolutely essential to your sauce. The sharp cheese makes the other two cheeses shine.

3. Make a Béchamel. Just Do It.

Once your cheese line-up is set, the next step is making a béchamel. If this sounds complicated, it’s not. Basically, you’re just stirring together equal parts butter and flour in a pot until they start foaming across the bottom of the pan and turn the color of straw; it usually takes one to two minutes. Slowly whisk in milk and keep stirring until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Congratulations: you’ve just made béchamel, the perfect creamy base to hold all that cheesy goodness.

At this point, you can stir in some seasonings. I like dry mustard because it really accents the cheese, plus cayenne for a little zip. Fold the seasonings into the cheese until it’s melted. I strongly recommend doing this off the heat because too much high heat might make the cheese separate. But if you’re having trouble getting the cheese to melt, you can put the pot back over low heat for a few seconds, just to bring the temperature up a little.

4. Undercook Your Pasta

One of the biggest keys to a great mac & cheese is to undercook your pasta. And I don’t mean just cook it al dente. I mean undercook it so there’s a ring of white uncooked pasta in the center when you bite into it. Why? You’re about to fold it into that amazing cheese sauce, and you want it primed to actually absorb and meld with that sauce. Undercooking at this stage means you also won’t risk overcooking it when you bake it in the oven (see #5 below). No one wants mushy mac & cheese.

5. Bake It Happen

At this point, you could absolutely eat the cheesy pasta straight out of the pot—it would taste pretty great. But if you want the ultimate mac & cheese experience, you’ll want to bake it. Baking allows the pasta to more fully absorb the cheese sauce, fusing both together into one cohesive bite. It also browns the cheese on top, creating what Malfitano calls “an almost cheese crust” and “a really complex flavor that can’t be replicated in a stovetop mac.”

If you choose to top your mac & cheese with buttery breadcrumbs before popping it in the oven, you’ll be rewarded with a golden crispy top that beautifully contrasts with the soft and cheesy pasta below.

Bake your mac & cheese, people. It might take a little longer, but the best mac & cheese of your life is worth a few extra minutes.