Homemade Mac and Cheese

The perfect meal: homemade mac and cheese

Homemade mac and cheese is pretty much the whiz kid of home cooking. Want a quick dish for Tuesday night dinner? Homemade mac and cheese is easy peasy. Trying to impress guests with sophisticated palates? Homemade mac is up for that. Need something to satisfy the whole gang plus friends on game day? Mac and cheese to the rescue.

There are lots of theories as to why everyone finds homemade mac and cheese so satisfying. Here in Wisconsin, we just know that whenever you're making homemade mac, it's going to be better with Wisconsin cheese. Our cheese is – how do we say this politely? – simply the tastiest, highest-quality, most award-winning cheese on the planet. That's why macaroni practically jumps out of the pot when it sees Wisconsin cheese coming – it knows it's about to hit the big time.

Poke around our website for some great homemade mac and cheese recipes. Or let us introduce you to some truly life-changing cheeses. And for tips on making the best homemade mac with Wisconsin cheese, read on.

How to make homemade mac and cheese

Follow these tips to master homemade mac and cheese.

1. Choose at least two cheeses. You'll need one that melts well like fontina, muenster, Monterey Jack, or baby swiss. Then choose a cheese for flavor like romano, sharp cheddar, pepper jack, or bleu cheese. Cheddar and gruyere cheese are varieties that both melt well and have great flavor.
2. Choose noodles that will hold the sauce. Avoid stringy pastas like spaghetti or fettuccine.
3. Undercook the pasta by a minute or two to avoid a mushy mac.
4. For creamier homemade mac and cheese, swap out cream or half-and-half all for part of the milk in the recipe.
5. When adding cheese to your milk and flour base, turn the heat off so the mixture doesn't separate.
6. When baking mac and cheese, cover the dish with foil to keep the moisture in, then remove it for the last 10 minutes to get that crispy, gratin crunch.
7. Add extra ingredients for flavor, texture, and zing. Our favorites include bacon, walnuts, peas, truffles, butternut squash, Dungeness crab, and lobster.

Award-winning homemade mac & Wisconsin cheese

in Wisconsin, we'll never say no to homemade mac and cheese. That's because when the cheese is from Wisconsin, there's a pretty good chance it's an award winner. Our cheeses have brought home more than 5500 awards – including lots of blue ribbons for Best Cheese in the World. In fact, we've won more awards than any other state in the country, and any other country in the world. More than Switzerland? Yep. France?! Uh-huh. Surely not more than Italy??!! Wait for it – you betcha.

See, our cheesemakers have been perfecting Old World recipes and inventing new cheeses for 180 years – since before Wisconsin was even a state. Today, we have the only Master Cheesemaker program in the world outside of one in Switzerland. And 90% of all the milk produced by our happy cows heads right for the cheesemaking shop – that's how seriously we take cheese in Wisconsin.

So next time you're whipping up some homemade mac, be sure to include Wisconsin cheese. That way, you know you're cooking with the best ingredients this world has to offer.