I Tested 9 Stovetop Mac and Cheese Brands. Here’s What I Found
For this list, I followed the instructions on each box word for word, ingredient by ingredient. But you don’t have to. In fact, there are some things I want to change.
Use less butter
Most of the boxed mac and cheese I make for this list calls for a quarter cup of milk and four tablespoons of butter. First, oops. That’s a lot of butter. These are (approximately) 6 to 7 ounce boxes. I promise you won’t need that much butter. Personally, I use 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter when making macaroni and cheese, and that’s more than enough. To be honest, you don’t even need to add butter if you don’t want to. What it does is add a little extra flavor and make the pasta creamier.
Don’t use too much milk
What you really need to make sure to add is milk. The milk needs to be added to help stir the cheese powder and prevent the pasta from drying out too quickly. Most of these brands call for a quarter cup of milk – which is too much. If you add that much milk, you risk drowning the pasta in a puddle of cheesy water at the bottom of the pot. Your macaroni and cheese won’t be creamy, it’ll just be runny. Instead, I recommend adding just two tablespoons of milk. If you feel the pasta is too dry, add another tablespoon. You can always start with a small amount and add more as you mix and stir to get it to your preferred consistency.
Using too much milk will make your macaroni and cheese watery.
