Temperatures are dropping across the UK, and people will be on the lookout for warm and cosy evening meals. When it comes to the ultimate comfort food, you can’t go too wrong with mac and cheese.
The classic dish is rich and satisfying, making it perfect for serving on those cold and miserable evenings. While recipes for mac and cheese vary from simple to complex, there is one secret ingredient that can help transform the dish. According to All Recipes, which claims to be the world’s largest community-driven food website, the “game-changing” ingredient creates a “richer” and “creamier” serving of mac and cheese.
The website credits food content creator @tinekeyounger for the tip. The social media user reportedly went viral for her mac and cheese recipe, which included evaporated milk.
Carmello D’Acquisto, of All Recipes, explained: “Evaporated milk is a canned milk product. Around half of the water content is removed (or evaporated), resulting in a richer, creamier, and milkier product.”
He added: “It adds just a little more dairy ‘oomph’ to your cheese sauce. When it comes to mac and cheese, go big or go home!”
Users of social platform Reddit also rave about adding evaporated milk to mac and cheese. They agree that it makes the dish much creamier.
One wrote: “Evaporated milk is the best with mac and cheese. It makes it so much more creamy. Just don’t add too much, you can pretty much eye it up to know how much to use.”
Another added: “Evaporated milk, in my opinion, makes it so much creamier. I also find regular milk tends to break and become grainy.”
On a separate Reddit post, one user asked: “What’s your #1 game-changing tip for making the best mac and cheese?” One user replied: “Evaporated milk.” 0RedStar0 agreed: “Yes! Evaporated milk is a game-changer!”
Evaporated milk has around 60% less water than regular milk. This means it’s far thicker and results in a smoother and silkier cheese sauce.
It also has a high protein concentration, which makes sure the fat and water in the cheese sauce don’t separate when they’re heated up. All in all, evaporated milk provides a much creamier and richer flavour compared to regular milk.
