Smoked pepper Jack Mac n cheese

[Pigfarmin101]

Ok so I’m not sure if smoked Mac n cheese would be the best as a side for smoked food so all of your feedback would be awesome. I’d like to get a solid recipe even if it’s not smoked. My favorite Mac recipe is a local guy and he nails it. He won best Mac after a Mac festival comp. His is pepper jack is topped with crispy onions. It’s not runny and not stringy, middle of the road. I wanna try pepper Jack with some cream cheese. I’d love to get anyone’s advise on building a recipe

 

[Elf@shore]

HI! Mac/Cheese
I been told I make a good dish ? SO? Here it goes? I free hand it.
Find the pasta you are going to use, 1 LB box or FRESH ?
Cook to AL DENTE, It can be on the hard side, it will cook more when baked. Drain pasta , let sit.
Make a Roux, Using equal parts of butter and flour/corn starch, ( either)
It can be loose , watery. Cheese will thicken it up.
Add the cheese of yur choice, clean out yur fridge use the little bits up !
Mix up with Roux, You can adjust if you need more?
Loosen: Add milk/Half&Half, Thicken: More cheese.
Add spices that you desire, do not need salt due the the cheese.
That is a basic Mac/ Cheese. I add more ! More to follow!>
Add on which I do, based on yur liking?
1 Add onion and green pepper to the Roux.
Leftover Ham or Pork also if desired?
Can add bread crumbs and dotted butter to the top, later in the cook to create a fonde crust.
Mix up what you have and bake @ 350.
You can adjust to yur flavor? which includes cheese type, spices, and raw vegs:
onions ,peppers ,garlic.? and meats ?
Last thought: You can jack up the spices or add spicy cheese ? also add hot peppers of yur choice.

 

[voyager 663rd]

The variety of cheese you suggest sounds mmmmmmm good.

BUT consider: this may be blasphemous to some but you don't want ALL your food smoked.

You must have variety so the meat is smoked, the salad is not, the mac & cheese is not. Maybe the dessert is.

If you're having steaks and m&c on the side, then maybe smoke the mac as the steaks will not have the "hickory" flavour profile. Just an example.

 

[Torch&Tone]

The cardinal rule of mac & cheese is to keep the sauce emulsified - a nice, creamy, homogeneous, unctuous coating, instead of broken, clumpy or grainy, grease-and-water, sticky goo. Lots of chemistry, but it mostly comes down to timing, frequent stirring, a proper blend of moisture/fats/emulsifiers, and just paying attention. Jack is pretty easy to work with, and both it and cream cheese can be cold-smoked (as can some of the other ingredients), though I don't think I'd serve smoked sides with a smoked main; your components should complete, not compete.

Beyond that, there's still a pretty generous range of textures and flavor, depending on personal preference and tolerance for recipe complexity. There are so many forks in the road, it's hard to even pick one "base" recipe to suggest as a starting point. Serious Eats is a pretty good resource for lots of recipes and, importantly, why they work.

 

[BigW.]

I'd say smoke it! There will be enough other sides that are not smoked. I've made this recipe before and it was great. You can sub some of the cheese for pepper jack if you want.

Smoked Mac and Cheese - Learn to Smoke Meat with Jeff Phillips

Here's my version of smoked mac and cheese and if you are a mac and cheese lover like I am, then you will appreciate this recipe beyond words!

www.Smoking-Meat.com

 

[SmokinJimAZ]

The key to making the ultimate smooth creamy Mac & Cheese is using Sodium Citrate. This is the ingredient that makes American cheese so smooth and creamy. My recipe for the best Mac & Cheese is as follows. Use can mix and match the cheeses as desired keeping the same total weight of cheese.

210g pasta (I like using Medium shells)
270g Half & Half
8.8g Sodium citrate
110g Medium or sharp cheddar (Like Tillamook)
80g Gruyere
40g Swiss

Method

Cook the pasta el dente
Drain the pasta in a colander
Return empty saucepan back to stove
Turn on heat to medium low
Add the half & half
Add the sodium citrate & mix well
Slowly add the cheese
Mix until all cheese is melted (don't let it get too hot !!)
Fold the cooked pasta back into the cheese mixture

 

[Pigfarmin101]

Thanks for all the info everyone! Do you guys think cream cheese is a bad idea?

 

[chef k-dude]

The key to making the ultimate smooth creamy Mac & Cheese is using Sodium Citrate. This is the ingredient that makes American cheese so smooth and creamy. My recipe for the best Mac & Cheese is as follows. Use can mix and match the cheeses as desired keeping the same total weight of cheese.

210g pasta (I like using Medium shells)
270g Half & Half
8.8g Sodium citrate
110g Medium or sharp cheddar (Like Tillamook)
80g Gruyere
40g Swiss

Method

Cook the pasta el dente
Drain the pasta in a colander
Return empty saucepan back to stove
Turn on heat to medium low
Add the half & half
Add the sodium citrate & mix well
Slowly add the cheese
Mix until all cheese is melted (don't let it get too hot !!)
Fold the cooked pasta back into the cheese mixture

SmokinJim has it nailed...except I dont use the Greyere and Swiss. Sodium citrate is how Kraft Cheese made its name. You dont even need milk or creme. I discovered this when low carbing because making a bechamel or roux with flour and even using milk is NOT keto (cream is though but behaves different than milk). I used special low carb pasta back then, it was almost like regular pasta but super expensive (not that konjac crap!).

Even after going back to eating carbs more liberally, I still make my mac and cheese, and cheese sauce in general this way. The cheese sauce can be thinned a bit as needed with more water. It can be used for broccoli, cauliflower or even as a queso dip or poured over tortilla chips. I even make a pimento cheese version that is delicious.

I make the cheese sauce in the microwave. Much faster than in a pan.

Here's a couple recipes from the web. Most people dont do this because it requires the sodium citrate and for some reason think its bad for you. But, like MSG, I've done my reading on it and both are in my spice/seasoning collection all the time. Play around with it and make your own adustments/tweaks.

Pepper jack works fine. Whether you smoke it or not is up to you. This is a smoking site. People here will smoke a restaurant napkin or a flip flop...anything! For me, everything doesn't have to be smoked, but in the summer, not using the oven inside is a good reason to cook outside and with molecular cheese sauce, you can just mix with the pasta and eat it just like boxed mixes. Baked mac and cheese is great, but stove-top is also very tasty.

Modern Baked Mac and Cheese With Cheddar and Gruyère Recipe

This baked macaroni and cheese recipe harnesses the amazing emulsifying powers of sodium citrate to make the gooiest and silkiest cheese sauce. It's like the boxed stuff, but even better because we use cheddar and Gruyère.

www.seriouseats.com

Silky Smooth Macaroni and Cheese - Modernist Cuisine

One of the traditional dishes we took on in Modernist Cuisine at Home is classic mac and cheese. While we have always loved this family staple, there is an inherent problem with traditional preparations: all of the virtues of using good cheese are lost when you make a cheese sauce with flour and...

modernistcuisine.com