holy cow! a mac-n-cheese debate
It’s not often that I find things in my daily media-gossip-blog troll that merge into the Shelterrific world, but this post at Gawker is about a subject so universal, it crosses all blog boundaries. Yes, I’m talking about macaroni and cheese. Apparently a fierce debating is raging as to the merits of Annie’s Organic vs. the classic Kraft box. You’ll find a lengthy (and hysterical) dissertation on the subject over at Salon.com. It does a side-by-side comparison with Annie’s bunny-endorsed mac-n-cheese and the vibrant orange stuff of Kraft. Yes, Annie’s cheese powder comes out ahead (with only nine ingredients rather than 20), but from a nutritional standpoint, they’re almost tied. I wonder how it compares to Mary Jane Butters’ mix which we wrote about last summer? For that matter, Rachael Ray’s recipe is so easy, it’s enough to make you swear off the instant forever. What’s your take on the mac-n-cheese debate? Do you eat the mix stuff? If so, which ones? — Angela M.
January 31st, 2007 at 10:26 am
here is an intelligent response to that article:
http://www.megnut.com/2007/01/attacking-annies-shells-and-cheddar
January 31st, 2007 at 9:41 pm
NEVER the stuff in the box. As the author of the Salon article points out, it’s so easy to make it from scratch, hardly a bother at all.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:16 am
My kids and husband LOVE the garish orange stuff (Publix store brand). They make two boxes at once. But I can’t bring myself to eat it. It’s especially nasty the next day when all the “cheese sauce” has somehow disappeared.
For me I make homemade. But they tell me repeatedly that they don’t like it as well. And they didn’t like Annie’s as well, either.
Our compromise is that I don’t make it (it used to be my go-to hangover food and now I’m not hung over. As much.) and they eat the box kind when I have to be gone for dinner. Everyone’s happy.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:14 am
I tried the purple box a few times in an attempt to be “healthier” about my comfort food habits, but it just didn’t cut it. When I want the blue box, only the blue box will do. I make homemade about as often but it’s a totally different experience.
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 am
I’m not fond of the boxed stuff on it’s own, I make mine from scratch. However, for a quick meal, if you get the white-cheese kraft dinner and doctor it up a bit it’s actually quite good.
While you’re boiling the pasta, sautee 4 cloves of crushed garlic in olive oil, and add this to the pasta when you add the milk, powder and butter. Top with fresh basil. It’s good!!
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
The best ever is America’s Test Kitchen’s - Classic Macaroni and Cheese
February 5th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
In light of Michael Pollan’s “Unhappy Meals” article that was in the New York Times last Sunday (and really made me think, all week), I gotta agree with the Salon article to a degree and suggest that the Megnut commentary is a little disingenuous (well, maybe not intentionally).
However, there’s a limit at which people want to make their own food. For example: not that many people want to roll their own pasta, particularly with Cook’s Illustrated telling them that store-bought pasta is fine. Mac & cheese is not “healthy” and never will be, though it’s probably fine as part of a diet that includes a lot of vegetables. Processed mac & cheese (IE, in a box) is even less healthy, which is probably the real comparison the article should have made: how healthy is homemade mac & cheese vs the boxed stuff, if the boxed stuff is more or less the same? What are the health effects of regularly eating mac & cheese? Does it help if you add frozen peas or something? Etc.
I *like* the boxed stuff - either kind, as well as the Kraft version that mimics the Annie’s version. All have addictive qualities. My serving suggestion would be to cut up and de-seed a fresh tomato, and mix the tomato cubes in with the CRACK IN A BOX. It’s yummy. I’ll try to remember to try Meighan’s version, which looks like it can only be yummy.
& I’ll be happy to try the Cook’s and Rachael Ray recipes, too.
February 5th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
While we’re on the subject of mac n’ cheese….there’s nothing REAL about Kraft cheese.
Kraft claims their cheese is “real”, yet do not list any trace of naturally-sourced cheese on their ingredient statements. We all know that Kraft cheese is NOT real cheese; It’s a bunch of chemicals combined in some laboratory dyed orange to look like cheese.
What I want to know is, how are they able to make the “real cheese” claim? Does this make anyone else furious that a company as large as Kraft has poisoned our food supply with such “convenient meals” for so many decades?
see: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=23741
March 6th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I don’t know why, but I can’t eat the Kraft kind. It tastes like plastic to me and makes me sick!