This document provides a recipe for baked macaroni and cheese. It calls for elbow macaroni, butter, flour, milk, onion, mustard, paprika, egg, cheddar cheese, salt, and breadcrumbs. The instructions are to make a roux with butter and flour, then add milk to create a béchamel sauce. The sauce is tempered with an egg before adding most of the shredded cheese and cooked macaroni. The mixture is baked with a breadcrumb topping and served.

1. BAKED MACARONI AND
CHEESE
Recipe courtesy of Alton
Brown

2. Prepare your Ingredients for the
Macaroni:
½ pound of elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of powdered mustard
3 cups of milk
½ a cup of yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
½ a teaspoon of paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese,
shredded
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
And for the Topping, you will
need:
3 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of panko bread
crumbs
Once you have the
ingredients together,
preheat your oven to 350
degrees.
Begin to bring a large pot of salted
water to a boil and cook the pasta
according to package directions, or
until al dente (firm to the bite).

3. In a separate pot,
melt 3 tablespoons
of butter. Using a
whisk, whisk the 3
tablespoons of flour
and 1 tablespoon
mustard powder into
the butter.
Butter and four mixed
like this is called a roux,
and it will thicken the
sauce.
Stir this mixture
constantly over
medium heat for 5
minutes. The flour
taste will cook out
and lumps will
disappear.

4. Still using the whisk, stir in the
milk, diced onion, bay leaf, and
paprika. Simmer for 10 minutes
and remove the bay leaf
afterwards.
After making a roux from butter
and flour, adding milk or cream
makes it a béchamel sauce, or
“white sauce”.
Whisk the egg in a small
bowl. Next, you will
temper the egg into the
béchamel sauce.
To temper the egg:
Using a ladle, spoon some of the
hot béchamel into the bowl with
the egg while stirring the egg
constantly. If you do not keep the
egg moving, it will scramble, and
you will have to start over with a
new egg.
Once you have successfully
mixed the egg and
béchamel sauce, you will
whisk the egg mixture back
into the big pot while
whisking constantly. Once
again, you do not want the
egg to scramble.
The use of an egg will help
thicken the sauce as well.

5. Now that you have tempered in
the egg, the macaroni and cheese
will come into play!
Stir ¾ of the shredded
cheddar cheese into the
béchamel sauce. Make sure
the cheese is well-
incorporated and has
melted.
Next, stir in the
cooked and drained
macaroni noodles.
Evenly coat them with
the cheese sauce.
Pour the macaroni and cheese
into a greased 2 quart baking
dish. Top it with the remaining
shredded cheese.
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter
and add in the panko
breadcrumbs; toss them
around to coat. Now you will
top the macaroni and cheese
with the breadcrumbs.
Don’t have panko
bread crumbs?
Try putting saltine
crackers in the
food processor
and pulsing until
they are very fine.

6. Bake the macaroni
and cheese for 30
minutes. Let it rest
for 5 minutes
before serving it.
Alton Brown’s
Baked Macaroni
and Cheese!

7. Works’ Cited
“Baked Macaroni and Cheese”. Food Network.
Television Food Network. 1 February 2015. Web.
Television Food Network. Web. 1
February 2015.