Because we sort of paved this path upthread, may we ask if there were any whole Cheetos in your magnum opus ?
I blended the Cheetos down to as fine of a powder as possible. I then took the Cheetos dust (a younger version of myself would have done homage to Scarface with the pile of cheestos dust) and mixed it into already simmering cream. I thought that would help to further break down the dust, but instead it made a flaming Cheetos paste like substance. This required more cream which diluted the flaming flavor. Lastly I added the velvetta cheese, I used this intentionally to try and keep the cheestos the primary flavor.
@shrinkrap, tried a version with eggs from a southern writer, but generally, it was a version we didnāt care for, and didnāt repeat. It was respectable enough, just not what we were looking for.
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Here is the the Chowhound thread.
It included two new ideas for me
This one from NYT uses cottage cheese, no making a bechamel sauce or pre-boiling the noodles!
And this prelude to John Thornās recipe
"As I looked over recipes for homemade macaroni and cheese, I determined that there were two distinct styles of preparation. The more common variety is bƩchamel-based, where macaroni is blanketed with a cheese-flavored white sauce, usually topped with crumbs and baked. The other variety, the kind my mother always made, is custard-based. In this version, a mixture of egg and milk is poured over layers of grated cheese and noodles. As the dish bakes, the egg, milk and cheese set into a custard. "
An article about it in the NYT in 2006
"ā¦in a 20-year-old cookbook called āSimple Cooking,ā the problem became clear:
" A good dish of macaroni and cheese is hard to find these days. The recipes in most cookbooks are not to be trustedusually it is their vexatious infatuation with white sauce, a noxious paste of flour-thickened milk, for this dish flavored with a tiny grating of cheese. Contrary to popular belief, this is not macaroni and cheese but macaroni with cheese sauce. It is awful stuff and every cookbook in which it appears should be thrown out the window."
The bookās author, John Thorne, still adheres to this position, but said that he has largely given up the fight."
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These days, the custard-style is what we prefer in our household for baked mac & cheese. If Iām not going to bake it, then I go with the bechamel-style.
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Shrinkwrap, your mention of cottage cheese (personally, donāt dig it - texture) made me think of noodle kuegel. Does that qualify as mac and cheese? No. Should it? Perhaps. It has both macaroni and cheese in it, along with delightful sugar, maybe raisins, maybe crushed pineappleā¦ outside the box thinking!
Also, in a response to the OP and I donāt think itās been mentioned yet, the few times Iāve made homemade M&C, Iāve put in some blue. We are blue lovers here at chez me, and it went over well. Blue isnāt terribly great at melting, unless you get one of those blue-brie combos like a Cambazola, but they are here and there in the dish, providing little bomb flavor nuggets.
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Which immediately draws oneās attention (or at least my attention) to the French mother sauces. The difference is between a roux as thickening agent (bechamel) and an emulsion of egg yolk and butter (like unto Hollandaise). I donāt see right or wrong, only personal taste. Clearly the bechamel approach is more common.
It seems to me the egg-based approach has more things that can go wrong - curdling, scrambling - and may be more fussy about cheeses that will work. On the other hand, carbonara isnāt exactly hard.
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FWIW, I donāt like cottage cheese, but I recall after blending it, the texture issues werenāt there. I have not eaten mac and cheese in a really long time, but I saw a recipe for a mac and cheese stuffed poblano pepper that got me jonesinā.
Iām not a big fan of cottage cheese either. Not too bad as a sort of binder in fruit salads. Certainly not as a sub in most recipes. Personal taste. My distaste is also based more on texture than taste. It seems to trigger some sense that āsomething is wrong.ā It falls in the category of āIāll eat it and smile but I wonāt like it very much.ā
(when I type cottage cheese thatās the emoji I get)
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I donāt mind cottage cheese sometimes, rarely even. What puts me off is the relative chalkiness of it. I have substituted it for ricotta (please, donāt faint) in lasagne in a pinch, and it works pretty well. In fact a lot of older (50-60ās) recipes call for it, because ricotta was exotic, and unavailable in smaller towns then, in certain parts of the US.
But too funny about the emoji @NotJrvedivici!
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I tried to find a video, with no success. The cottage is surprisingly good in the NYT version of mac and cheese. Not chalky, not lumpy, just ādairyā. I think it has to be full fat.
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Itās hard to find, but small curd, full fat cottage cheese with no additives is surprisingly dry and delicious. When I visit my family in Ohio, I always buy Michigan brand cottage cheese as a treat. Friendship brand cottage cheese is available where I live, which is almost as good. I was standing in the dairy section of Stop & Shop and an older woman next to me said āI know itās supposed to be good for you but I really donāt like the stuffā and she had a large curd soupy kind of 1% cottage cheese in her hands. I showed her the carton I was buying. We compared labels. Mine had simple ingredients. Hers had a lot of crap in it. And I told her 4% milk fat isnāt going to kill you.
I like it, especially in the summer with ripe tomatoes - also with ripe cantaloupe and other seasonal fruit. I usually put walnuts on top when I eat it with fruit. But I donāt cook with it.
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Yes, H likes it, and when Iām buying, Iāll go for the premium brands, full fat.
I do like that sometimes with lots of black pepper on it. Iād be willing to give the NYT recipe a try using CC that @shrinkrap posted about. Thanks for weighing in @retrospek, donāt think a lot of people are clued in to the full fat stuff.
Ooh - that might be a little off for me, ratio-wise. But I can totally see roasting a poblano and then mixing strips of it into the mac. Good idea!
Itās always the picky factor over here, and the reason why I make some things and not others. Mac is something 2/4 of us would eat. So I donāt get much bang for my time.
One last post about that recipe, then Iām done.
HOW TO MAKE āMAGICā NO-BOIL, NO-ROUX MAC AND CHEESE
You wonāt find a roux or a pot of boiling water anywhere in this recipe. So how does its velvety voodoo work? Luckily this magician is happy to reveal the secret.
ā1. Magic Mac and Cheese works without parboiling because it uses extra liquid ingredients that absorb into the macaroni as it bakes. As the pasta cooks, the starches leach into the liquid, which helps to thicken the final sauce.
2. The second texture hack is replacing heavy cream with cottage cheese. Why? It helps to thicken the sauce without diluting the cheese flavor.
3. Thirdly (despite forgoing a custard base) we add an egg. Not only is this a thickener, but it encourages the sauce to cling to the noodles.
4. Lastly, donāt underestimate the importance of stirring after 30 minutes. This ensures that all of the melted cheese is evenly distributed and not just sitting in globs.ā
On the other hand from Smitten Kitchen
āUpdated in 2019: Iāve made a few changes to this recipe over the years. 1. I donāt use cottage cheese anymore (I donāt care for the slight graininess) but basically anything else ā most often sour cream. You could also use ricotta (1:1) or for extra luxury creme fraiche or mascarpone ā for these two, I use 1/2 cup plus an additional 1/2 cup of milk as a swap for 1 cup cottage cheese. These smoother types of dairy can be hand-stirred, no blender needed. 2. Iāve found you can get away with 3/4 of the cheese for a little less cheddar intensity, should you wish.ā
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Thank you for posting this! I always thought there must be a good version of cottage cheese.
Hereās a picture of our baked, custard-style mac & cheese from this afternoon. We started with this recipe and it took about five iterations to get it right for our tastes and oven. (Basically, more custard and less cheese.) The process goes much smoother if you can make it with a partner.
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That looks amazing. 
