Comfort Food Origins: Mac and Cheese!

Not a single reference to nutmeg??

Got to try this.

How did they get parm back then?

Okay but will you be making the Jefferson version? That's the one I want to experience.

the cheese is grate good one dude

i call it macs famous mac and cheese

👏🏽

Was the dough around the rim of the bowl to reduce the effort of cleaning the dish? I wondered what was the point until I remembered that macaroni casseroles can cause a real hassle in terms of cleaning the dish, and that's with all the cleaning tools and chemicals the modern kitchen can offer.

Literally millions of Americans eat this every day. Lol

Greetings from the Nutmeg State

Hang on, arent you using penne pasta?

Honestly this is the kind of thing i wish was on TV or could be learned in school. It's awesome to be able to look back in time and see how people lived.

What is the meaning of macaroni in the "YankeeDoodle" song? Where he puts a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Guess I can Google it, but I'd prefer to hear it from somebody, not Google. Lol.🙏❤️🇺🇲

Yea that does look good for modern times let alone back then. Kudos!😊

As a lifelong macaroni and cheese lover, I'll just warn everyone here not to try this recipe, I guarentee it will taste like butter and milk with weird chewy noodles, and not much else. You're going to want to make a rue with butter and flour, then stir in the cream and cheese; boil the noodles separately in water, then combine them in the pan and top with cheese to bake. All the ingredients are here for this one, they were just combined badly and they will yield a disappointing result.

I only wish I lived in a technological age when smells can be transferred digitally.

stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni

Get your macaroni before it foon goes cold

This great value creamy box macaroni is totally the same thing 🥣🤡

Anyone who wants to make this the most authentic way possible might want to try a good clothbound cheddar (like Cabot) as that is the way cheddar was produced back then. Parmigiano Reggiano might also have been a cheese wealthier folks used as it was highly regarded as the finest cheese. Good Parm is fantastic in this dish. Use Gouda though if you want a classic "fruity/sweet" flavor. Lots of people kept goats back then so an average farmer mightve made this dish with goat cheddar or something like Manchego.

YYOOOMMMYYY!!! I want some.

Looks like a pizza in the thumbnail

I was skeptical but this was one of the best macoroni cheese's I have ever had and I would say I am a bit of a connoisseur.

Looks basically like a mac n cheese pie-Hook me up with that delicious!!

Wow looks delicious😊

Serve Forth!

What kind of cheese would be best and what kind would be most traditionally used?

add some Ham or Bacon, and you have the more common in Germany version of it.

Thomas Jefferson cooked his own food?

Nowadays just the thought of gluten and lactose combined in a savory dish makes me both thrilled and sad 🥲

You forgot to mention the crust tastes amazing

I believe it was specifically John Hemings who brought back a lot of the recipes to the US, including macaroni and cheese. He was Jefferson's chef and he accompanied Jefferson to France. He trained there as a chef extensively before returning back to the US. He is also the brother of Sally Hemings.

This looks better than modern stuff

I would not feed that to my dog if he were starving.

My grandparents and great grandparents would give us kids macaroni soup which was basically macaroni noodles in milk with butter as well as a sliced cheese we'd always eat the sliced cheese. Never eat the rest lol.

So it's not just a boomer food...

Fantastic video! Thank you!!

Curious why Penne was used here? Or at least addressed in the video. Is this a linguistics thing, do some people refer to all types of pasta as "macaroni"?

My favorite macaroni is the way the French made it. They make it with brie, butter, Gruyère, cheddar and they cook the cheese separate.

That's grandma mac and cheese, I'm digging it😊

Not "lozenges", Jon - loseyns. Basically hypersimplified lasagna, like you said. Max over on Tasting History replicated it.

what is the point of the crust? it it to make clean up easier or an extra treat?

I make macaroni Lasagna instead of pizza these days. It doesn't hurt my teeth like the crust does.

My favorite anecdote of Thomas Jefferson(not sure of the accuracy) is how another member of Congress tried to introduce a rule saying Jefferson could not eat macaroni and cheese during meetings because it was gross.

500 years of comfort food.... still one of the best

It looks like if you threw in a little crumbled sausage, it could cure depression for a solid 48 hours.

Idk which I want to try more the steak pie or this macaroni and cheese

“The Cheese is Grate”, I see what you did there. 😉

You should really do a collaboration with Max Miller sometime.