Made mac and cheese, attempting to follow the ratios of alton brown’s mac and cheese:
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it’s free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf. Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese. Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving. Remember to save leftovers for fried Macaroni and Cheese.
Ingredients: 1/2 pound elbow macaroni 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon powdered mustard 3 cups milk 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1 large egg 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded 1 teaspoon kosher salt Fresh black pepper
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe-1939524
However, the recipe only calls for 8 ounces of pasta, I wanted to make 2 lbs. So accordingly, I tried to quadruple the recipe by just adding in 4 times as much of everything.
This took waaay longer for cooking time (longer for water to boil, longer for food to come to the proper temperature, etc.) but more importantly, the ratios didn’t quite scale.
I ended up with almost twice as much bechemel sauce, which all my cheese didn’t quite satisfy, and, partly due to my error, 1 tablespoon of mustard is too much!
One problem was that I was a bit distracted, listening to We Are Church training audio, but I still should have been more cautious when going into new territory with a new recipe — quadrupling it/scaling up in this magnitude is going to take some care.
I should have paid more attention, planned the scale-up beforehand, rather than calculating it all on the fly, and for ingredients that are harsh, especially mustard, I should use sparingly/with caution.
The pasta is edible, but still quite bitter, because I added mustard all at the beginning, 4 tablespoons worth! I was able to temper the sharpness of it with a bit of honey, but that is still a less than ideal fix.
https://food52.com/hotline/29157-i-made-a-chicken-dish-with-a-mustard-sauce-and-it-s-just-too-sharp-how-can-i-counteract-that-taste
I also added 1 wedge of brie, but it’s worth noting that the rind should NOT be added since it does not dissolve well. I don’t think I’ll add brie to mac & cheese again because it’s a bit of a waste of brie. For myself, I think I’ll only serve brie as an hor d’ourve or on a cheese tray, since the rind is such a part of the experience, but doesn’t lend itself well to cooking.
Good lesson in humility, this is the third time I made mac and cheese this year, but the first time I failed because I tried to scale up too much and be too adventurous.
Takeaways:
Be careful when scaling up a recipe
Err on the safe side when adding harsh/strong spices
No brie in mac and cheese