Another cool thing about American cheese? You can use it to stabilize your sauce if you want to skip the béchamel. The flavor isn’t much to write home about, so it’s best paired with another cheese (although, in a pinch we’ve been known to slap a few slices on a bowl of noodles and call it a day). It’s oh-so-silky and because it’s processed, it won’t ever split, so it’s kinda perfect for adding to mac and cheese. At the same time, cheeses like parmesan or feta may not melt the way youd expect for a cheese sauce. We know you’re scoffing, but hear us out: If there’s one thing American cheese is good at, it’s melting. Texture : You may find that stringy cheeses like mozzarella make the macncheese more difficult to eat, as its a little impractical to have strands of cheese hanging from your spoon. RELATED: Wondering What Goes with Mac and Cheese? Here Are 32 Sides That Make It a Meal Here, the nine best cheeses for mac and cheese. Older cheeses tend to have drier, crumbly textures-great for serving on their own, but not so much for melting. And when given the choice between young or aged fromage, you’ll want to stick to younger cheeses for mac and cheese purposes. TBH, most cheeses can’t offer both qualities, but combining a few types will solve that problem.

Ideally, the cheese is sharp and flavorful-neither too stinky or too bland-with a creamy, gooey texture when melted. But if the recipe doesn’t have a béchamel base, you’ll want to use a combination of cheeses: one for flavor and one that’s processed (like American cheese, cream cheese or Velveeta) for stability.īeyond that, the best cheeses for mac and cheese balance flavor with meltability.

If you are starting with a béchamel, you won’t need to worry much about your sauce breaking or splitting (aka turning into a curdled, greasy mess). How to choose a cheese for making mac and cheese:īefore you select a cheese for your mac, check the recipe: Does it call for making a béchamel? (That’s a white sauce made with a roux-flour cooked with butter-and dairy.) This will influence your cheese choice. So what are the best cheeses for mac and cheese? We have a few ideas. And when it comes to cooking a batch at home, we aim for near-perfection. It’s salty, carby, cheesy, gooey, comforting and celebratory all at once. We don’t like to play favorites, but we would do unspeakable things for macaroni and cheese.

3 best cheeses for mac and cheese