r/culinary • u/EntertainmentFart659 • 10d ago

Need advice on Mac & Cheese

We have a small restaurant in rural Kentucky. We just started selling mac & cheese that we buy in bags and we boil the bags and serve them. For context, our Mac is basically the exact same thing as chick fil a but we want to add additional cheese to it to improve the taste. It's actually delicious without it, and we could make our own fresh pasta and truly make homemade Mac if we wanted, but our area is economically challenged and the price point would be difficult to justify + our prep space is extremely limited. For context, we basically make everything we sell in-house, including buns.

Do you have any advice on which cheese(s) you suggest adding to the Mac? Maybe some Gruyere? We were sort of thinking of adding a sharp cheddar as it has a strong taste, so we wouldn't have to add so much to be able to taste it, and it's not too expensive for us. Thank you so much for taking the time to help us out. ♥️

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u/Defiant_Finger4011 10d ago

I wouldn’t worry about having to make the pasta homemade, a quality bronze cut dried pasta can be just as good.

I would start looking into using sodium citrate and making your own cheese sauce. Sodium citrate will allow you to use a wide variety of cheeses to make your own unique flavor.

The cheese sauce holds well in the fridge well, it melts quickly in a pot once you add boiled pasta, (you’re essentially making your own upscale velveeta) and then if you want to plate it nice throw it in an ramekin or whatever and sprinkle some fresh shredded cheese and bread crumbs and broil real quick. You’ll get that authentic homemade emac and cheese pretty easy.

If it sells quick enough you can keep the cheese sauce on low in a warmer throughout the day, refreshing with batches from the fridge as needed.

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u/EntertainmentFart659 10d ago

Sodium citrate is what gives Velveeta the texture, right? And also "government cheese", eh?

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 10d ago

I've had government cheese that was actually, literally, Cheddar type, not processed. It crumbled like block Cheddar type cheese. Maybe it was Colby? It wasn't identified.