mac n'cheese with egg or no egg in the sauce?

[peppatty]

I have been looking for a good mac n'cheese recipe and have tried the egg ones but I seem to always overcook. Any trick to this style? Why the egg?

[im_nomad]

I make my mac and cheese starting with a white sauce. I don't measure unfortunatly, but it's melted butter and then flour in a saucepan, followed up with milk (or even sometimes a bit of cream to be extra indulgent). I cook until thickened, add a dollop or two of yellow or dijon mustard to bring out the cheese flavour, S&P, and a dash or two of hot sauce. I sometimes add season-all or what not if i have that kind of stuff around. I also sometimes throw in a bit of minced dehydrated onion. I then add about half of the cheese I plan to use into the sauce until melted. I mix that in with the cooked pasta, into the casserole dish and mix in remaining chunks of cheese ( i tend to use a LOT of cheese in mine), making sure there's lots on top to finish . Top that with some bread crumbs that were mixed with butter and maybe a bit of old bay or something like that. Bake until it's bubbly and the crumbs are browned.

[djdragan]

Ever since I was a child, my mother would make her Mac and Cheese with eggs. Pretty simple she would layer cooked macaroni and grated cheddar in a baking dish. Pour in a milk and egg mixture (with salt and pepper). Then top with more cheese and sliced tomato's and bake. When baked it does setup together and have a custard type of texture.

[Ali]

The egg thing is, I think, a southern thing. (The egg is to create a custardy type of texture.) In any case, a fairly famous recipe is Delilah Winder's. I don't know how the recipe compares to the version made in the restaurant, but that stuff is pretty good.

http://www.recipezaar.com/68993

[gabby29]

Barefoot Contessa makes a version. Some have opted to replace the bread crumbs with panko. Alas, she does not use egg and her version is creamy and adaptable.

http://www.recipezaar.com/202981

[bw2082]

I've never had any luck with mac and cheese that calls for eggs either. It always curdles and looks gross.

[C. Hamster]

Me too. The texture is funny, too.

[Karl S]

Might want to change it to just egg yolks.

[cheesemonger]

Huh, I've never used an egg. I have to run right now, I'll post a recipe when I come back if nobody else does.

[lekkercraft]

Every mac & cheese recipe I've ever made using an egg has turned out terribly. It's curddle-y and has a texture I just can't go for. Growing up, we used a recipe that layered elbow pasta, a cheese (sharp cheddars) and a basic white sauce and it was excellent. I've never found an exact recipe for that one, I'm afraid, but the ones I have found usually involve making a cheese sauce (a white sauce plus cheese melted on the stove) before adding over the pasta - personally haven't liked how it comes out when done like this.