How to adapt this mac and cheese recipe to be made ahead of time?
I make some pretty good mac and cheese, and I've been asked to bring about 10 pounds of it to an event. It must be prepared ahead of time, frozen, thawed and then brought back up to temp.
The recipe yields about 2.2kg(~5 lb), 3L (3.2 qt), so I'll need to double it.
380g of aged white cheddar, grated
190g gruyere, grated
530g milk
22g sodium citrate
454g (1lb) dried pasta
Blue cheese, salt, white pepper to taste
Cook pasta, set aside. Make sauce: Heat milk and dissolve sodium citrate completely, bring to a simmer. Add cheese gradually until completely incorporated. Depending on the moisture content of the cheese, the sauce may be too thick. Add water to thin the sauce, keep in mind it will thicken quite a bit once it cools. Season with blue cheese, salt and white pepper. Combine sauce and pasta.
I have access to an oven and a stovetop at the event. I'm thinking about cooking the pasta a bit under, making the sauce a bit thinner than usual, freezing it, taking it to the event, thawing over night and baking it. I could heat it in a large pot on the stovetop, but I won't have a lot of time to pay attention to it/stir it.
If I heat it in the oven, I have no idea how long it will take to bake and I need to time it with the rest of the dishes. Any ideas on how long it would take in the oven or better ways to heat it?
Posted Oct 11, 2017, 4:42 PM UTC · edited
Could you make the cheese sauce and freeze that ahead of time then simply boil dry pasta on the stove at the event? It'll be faster than trying to reheat what would amount (thermally) to an enormous block of ice in the oven, which will take a long time.
I do plan to thaw it in the refrigerator over night at the event before I put it in the oven, so at least it wouldn't go in frozen. I've thought about boiling the pasta and heating the sauce separately, but I may not be able to give it even that much attention - I'm pretty involved in this event and I want to minimize my trips to the kitchen. I could ask someone else to do it (it's just cooking pasta and heating sauce after all), but I'm not sure if that would be a cool thing to do.
I've also thought about cooking the pasta and sauce, freezing both separately, thawing them over night, heating the sauce and then using the heated sauce to warm the pasta. But I don't know how well pasta freezes or thaws, and I really want to ensure quality.
10lbs of ice won't thaw over night in a fridge. You'd be looking at a couple hours in the oven minimum. Stouffers 5lb Mac and cheese calls for 55min to warm from frozen, and I'd expect to more than double that with a deep casserole.
Cooking pasta and adding premade sauce is about as easy as you can get. Easier than Kraft blue box even. I'm sure someone else will be able to assist. Even if not, the active prep time is only abbot 10min while you cook the pasta. Sauce can be brought up to temp in the same water.
That's a good point, I've never actually thawed anything this large before. You're right about cooking the pasta and heating the sauce separately, I'll try to make that happen. Thank you for the pointers!