The Secret Ingredient to Mac and Cheese
She grew up watching her mother learn to make mac and cheese from the singer Patti LaBelle, a best-selling cookbook author whose recipe is a five-cheese stunner (and made in the custard style of my Aunt Louise).
Key points
- “Why?” Now, decades later, rowdy debates about mac and cheese are all over social media, especially at holiday time.
- “I thought my mom made the best mac and cheese,” Hill, whose own mac is béchamel-based, told me.
- It’s where the mac and cheese was made, and the very important people were the kids.
It was fine for others to contribute a protein, but side dishes were Louise’s domain: deviled eggs, braised mustard greens, and the mac and cheese for which she was famous.
Hill’s mom, a Puerto Rican married to a Black American, wanted to make mac and cheese in a way beloved by her husband and his family.
Additional details
- Should mac and cheese be pourable, or baked until it can be cut like brownies?
- I adore a good, melty cube of Velveeta (in my scrambled eggs), but using Campbell’s Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup?
- When I was 12, she told me there was no way to grate cheese without risking the skin of my knuckles.
- On any given weekend, a hunting pal of Benny’s might stomp onto Louise’s spotless back patio with just-caught cod, or crayfish still moving in the trap—maybe even deer heart, thawing in a ziplock, or fresh pheasant to throw on the grill.
- There were other ingredients—a spoonful of dry mustard, a pinch of Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning—but what stood out to me were Louise’s careful shakes, from a Schilling tin, of cream of tartar.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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