Accidental Hedonist

Timing is everything in the blog business. My subjects are predetermined for me be the ever-indespensible food timeline. Often I plan beforehard just what recipes I plan on doing. With my natural disinclination for all things Kraft, it should shock no one that I had planned on doing a version of Macaroni and Cheese.

Then Meg from Too Many Chefs went and posted her own version. A version that made me drool. I chucked out the recipe that I had in store and made hers instead, altering just a tad in order to meet my own tastes. I highly recommend making her version as well, as the prosciutto sounds like a wonderful addition.

My own choices are based on the following. 1) I like onions ….and 2) I chose parrano and asagio cheeses as they melt very nicely and add a bit of sweetness to contrast against the sharpness of the cheddar. I tihnk it worked out quite well.

• 1 Tbl olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 lb (1 box) Ziti macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 All-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup Asagio cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup Parrano Cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs, preferably from 1 day old Italian bread
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent and just starting to turn brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

Then cook the macaroni as per directions on the box. Pretty straight forward, right?

Pre-heat the over to 400 degrees F.

Now for the fun part…the bechamel. Melt the butter in a medium size sauce pan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk together well. Allow to bubble and get a medium to light brown color. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the milk and fully incorporate. Repeat, 1/4 cup of milk at a time. Then add the 1/2 cup of cream and fully incorporate as well. Voila! Cream sauce! Now to add the cheese.

Mix in 1/2 cup of the Cheddar cheese, and stir until cheese has melted. Repeat the process two more times adding 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese each time. Save the last 1/2 cup of cheddar until later. Then mix in 1/8 of a cup of parrano and 1/8 cup of asagio.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain well and return to the pan from which you cooked it. Pour in the cheese sauce and onions. Fold in well. Then pour the pasta and cheese into a 12″ x 8.5″ baking dish. Top with the remaining cheeses and finally with the bread crumbs. Place in the oven for 5-8 minutes, baking until the crumbs are golden brown.

Serves 8-10

You should now have 3/4 cup of cheese remaining….1/2 cup of cheddar, 1/8 cup of asagio and 1/8 cup of parrano. Set aside.

Okay, not so much a letter as much as a comment in a previous post. But hey, same idea, right?

Cathleen takes a little umbrage at my post “One reason (of many) why I dislike Kraft Food” . She writes:

In all fairness, which was missing from your article on “One Reason (Of Many) Why I Dislike Kraft” you show a picture of an orange powder substance that you claim Kraft calls ‘cheese’ and it is supported in a note from Kate who calls it a ‘fluorescent orange powder’.

However, one thing you are falling short of is due diligence. Kraft does not call it cheese, it is quite clearly noted on the label (I actually went and got a box from my neighbor) that it’s called ‘CHEESE SAUCE MIX’.

Now, Kraft is not one of my favorite manufactures of food products, however, there is no excuse for ‘fluorescent yellow journalism’ either.

Cathleen, Cathleen, Cathleen. Have you not learned by now that I would take any opportunity to take a few immature swipes at the mega-monolithic corporation that is Kraft foods?

I was offended at the idea that I am a journalist. After all, journalists have a code of ethics and standards to which they should strive to adhere to. They also get an expense account and freebies from various food companies, but who am I to quibble about that?

Me? I’m no food journalist. I’m a food writer, and a little known one at that. My own ethic is that something has to taste good, and that a food item is what it claims itself to be. For example: If a restaurant claims itself to be the best, I feel I have the right to hold them to that claim (Are you listening ‘Seattle’s best Pizza’?).

But you do bring up some interesting points which I feel do need to be addressed. So in the interest of due diligence, let’s touch upon some of the items you bring up.

Kraft does not call it cheese, it is quite clearly noted on the label (I actually went and got a box from my neighbour) that it’s called ‘CHEESE SAUCE MIX’

I actually went out and purchased a box of the stuff.

I noted that the name of the product was called “Kraft Macaroni & Cheese” rather than “Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Sauce Mix”. In fact, at first glance, I could not find any instance of where it was called Cheese Sauce Mix. I did nntice that not only did they call it “cheese”, they called it the “Cheesiest”. Unless they were using the definition of “Cheesy” which states itself to be shabby or cheap, then they are making the claim the they are the pinnacle of what cheese products should be.

That, my friend, is a scary, scary thought.

Upon further investigation of the box, I was able to find where it mentioned “Cheese Sauce Mix”. It was on the side of the box (pictured below.

What? You can’t see it there? Neither could I until I took a closer look.

Of course! There it is! How could I have missed that?

To be honest, the box does mention the phrase “cheese sauce mix” on two more occasions, noticeably with a similar font size and no where on the front of the box. I think it’s fairly safe to say that when push comes to shove, Kraft knows it’s not cheese, but they don’t really want consumers to think of their product as cheese sauce mix. Rather, they slyly make it so that the word cheese is associated with their product even when it’s clearly not cheese.

I called Beecher’s Cheeseshop at Pike Place Market, and talked with assistant cheesemaker Amir Rosenblatt. I asked him straight out “What ingredients go into making a simple cheese?” His reply? Milk, cultures, rennet (enzymes) and salt.

Let’s take a quick look at the ingredient list for Kraft’s Cheese Sauce Mix:

whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, salt, calcium carbonate, sodium tripolyphosphate, contains less than 2% of citric acid, sodium phosphate, lactic acid, milk, yellow 5, yellow 6, enzymes, cheese cultures

Does this ingredient list constitute cheese? By the letter of the law, yes. But when you end up with a plateful of fluroscent orange powder, you’re really stretching the truth to the breaking point. It’s disingenuous and Kraft probably knows this. Hence my initial post.