Best Cheese to Use When Making Mac and Cheese

As a mac and cheese lover, you can’t resist gooey, melty cheese and your favorite noodles. Maybe you’ve tried lots of recipes or have an old standby you bring out whenever you’re craving this comfort dish.

With help from this guide, you may discover new favorites and the best cheese for mac and cheese. Get ready to make mac and cheese with velvety cheeses that make your mouth water!

7 Best Cheeses for Macaroni and Cheese

While sharp cheddar is the most common choice, the best mac and cheese recipes use a blend of several cheeses. By mixing parmesan, gruyere, brie, or gouda into your mac and cheese, you can create gourmet flavors. The best mac and cheese blend will ultimately depend on your preferences, but you should go for something that offers a creamy, gooey texture. You can experiment with a wide variety of cheeses, including:

1. Cheddar

Cheddar is a staple for countless recipes. This option is a classic cheese for mac and cheese, so you’ve probably had it before. But you may not have tried this pasta dish withdifferent cheddar varietieslike:

Sharp:Use sharp cheddar cheese for a stronger taste. Remember this variety takes a bit more heat to melt.
Mild:Mild cheddar has been aged for a short time, giving it subtle flavors and a smooth melting texture.
Medium:Medium cheddar is the ideal compromise between sharp and mild varieties. It melts well and offers a bit more flavor than mild options.

Extra-sharp cheddar cheese offers a strong flavor, but with a lower moisture content, it doesn’t melt as well. Save that cheese for a snack and use the other varieties for your mac and cheese recipes.

2. Parmesan

Parmesan is a salty cheese with complex flavors. For a mac and cheese recipe, consider the combination of sharper cheddar cheeses and a flavorful Parmesan. This cheese adds a boost of fruity, nutty notes to your favorite macaroni recipes.Parmesan is also ideal for grating on top of mac and cheese before you bake it to add golden color.

3.Gruyere

Update your mac and cheese recipes to something more mature with Gruyere. It’s a hard cheese that melts to a smooth and velvety texture, making it the best melting cheese forfondue—but it’s just as delicious mixed with pasta. Gruyere has a flavor that combines nuttiness with earthiness and the slightest hint of sweetness. The result is a complex taste you probably never thought to pair with mac and cheese.

Consider combining Gruyere with white cheddar for a delicious mac and cheese dish. Add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg to kick the meal up a notch and keep things sophisticated.

4. Brie

You might have enjoyed this creamy cheese on a cheese board before, but it makes the perfect addition to a macaroni recipe. Brie becomes liquidy and buttery when it melts, making for a gooey and delicious mac and cheese. Depending on what varieties you can find, brie can offer anything from mild to strong nutty and tangy flavors.

Combine brie with ingredients like Parmesan, bacon or garlic for a mac and cheese that elevates the classic comfort food to something sophisticated.

5. Smoked Gouda

Enhance your meal with the almost meaty flavors of smoked Gouda. Young aged Gouda melts well, resulting in a creamy texture that makes it a great cheese for mac and cheese. Younger versions of this ingredient also offer a milder profile, meaning you can create a dish that everyone in your family will enjoy. Want stronger, more complex flavors for your mac? Opt for aged Gouda, which provides a robust flavor.

6. Monterey Jack

This cheese has a similar texture and flavor to colby and cheddar, making it a familiar swap for mac and cheese favorites. Monterey Jack melts perfectly for this dish, creating a buttery, gooey texture. You can even combine it with colby and cheddar for a three-cheese mac that everyone will love.

7. Fontina

Fontina melts perfectly, putting it among the best cheeses for mac and cheese. Some varieties have a pungent, nuttier profile, while others are lighter, buttery and fruity. Fontina is versatile. Its texture and flavor make it ideal as a table cheese— one you snack on or add cold to dishes— and as a melting cheese. Melt and combine a mid-priced option with pasta for a grown-up macaroni recipe that even kids will love.

Mac and Cheese Recipes

Ready to take the best cheeses and incorporate them into mouthwatering mac and cheese recipes? Get inspiration with these flavorful ideas:

Sausage Mac and Cheese

Take a basic mac and cheese recipe and kick it up with the addition ofPremio Sweet Italian Sausage. Thissausage mac and cheese recipegets its creamy texture from shredded cheddar and Parmesan cheese. A combination of flour, butter and milk creates a thick base for the sauce, which you can pour over your favorite type of pasta.

For this simple recipe, cook and crumble the sausage, then combine with the prepared sauce and cooked pasta. Transfer everything to a baking dish and grate on more Parmesan cheese, which will become golden brown and bubbly in the oven. The creamy, flavorful cheeses combine with the delicious and authentic taste of sweet Italian sausage for a meal everyone will enjoy.

Bacon and Sausage Mac and Cheese

Different varieties of cheddar combine in this flavorfulbacon and sausage mac and cheese recipe. Cook up a few slices of bacon and half a package ofPremio Sweet Italian Chicken Sausageto combine with shredded sharp and white cheddar. You can cut the sausage into bite-sized rounds or crumble it up, depending on your preference. Thicken the cheesy sauce mixture with a blend of butter, flour and chicken broth for added richness and flavor.

No matter how you prep the ingredients, you’ll get a mouthwatering comfort meal that’s full of protein and flavor. And the addition of Premio Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage reduces fat without compromising on taste.

Comfort Mac and Sausage Bake

Create this mac and sausage dish with a combination of Romano, Mexican blend and feta — a few more of thebest cheeses for mac and cheese. Thiscomfort mac and sausage bake recipegets an infusion of flavor fromPremio Hot Italian Sausageand our sweet variety. That balance, combined with stewed tomatoes, spinach, basil, oregano and garlic, creates the most flavorful mac and cheese you’ve ever had.

These cheeses melt better than you might expect to create a luscious and flavor-packed macaroni dish. Feta has a high moisture content despite its crumbly appearance. The tangy, salty flavor plays well with Romano’s saltiness, and the addition of Mexican blend cheese helps create a gooey, melty meal.

Enhance Your Mac and Cheese Recipes With Premio Foods

Combine the best cheeses for mac and cheese with another delicious addition— Premio sausage! At Premio Foods, we’re dedicated to creating our products the way sausage should be. With no fillers or preservatives, Premio Sausage gives your recipes authentic, fresh flavors. And with so much variety to choose from, our range of products lets you find just what your family will enjoy for any meal of the day.

Shop Premio Sausage onlinetoday orfind us in a store near you!

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Best Cheese to Use When Making Mac and Cheese | Premio (2024)

FAQs

What cheese makes the best mac and cheese? ›

What Is the Best Cheese for Mac and Cheese? Sharp cheddar is the overwhelming popular choice, but for extra-creamy results, we think medium cheddar is even better. Other delicious options include Gruyère, smoked Gouda, and Monterey Jack.

What kind of milk is best for mac and cheese? ›

Milk: Keeps our cheese sauce super creamy. I use whole milk or reduced-fat milk. Mustard and spices: A combination of Dijon mustard, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt makes this macaroni and cheese extra delicious. Cheese: I use white cheddar and parmesan or pecorino cheese.

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Why add cream cheese to mac and cheese? ›

While the cream cheese adds an important lusciousness, it doesn't do the macaroni and cheese any favors when it comes to its flavor, so it's important to use the sharpest, tangiest Cheddar you can get your hands on. For perfectly coated noodles, make sure to cook the pasta in the sauce for a minute or two.

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How do you increase the flavor of cheese in mac and cheese? ›

Cayenne pepper is a classic seasoning that adds warmth and enhances the flavour of the cheese.

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What makes mac and cheese taste so good? ›

Great mac n' cheese needs one or more cheeses that melt well, and one or more cheeses that bring the flavor. The best melters include monterey jack, fontina, baby swiss, asiago, provolone, mozzarella, and alpine-style. Cheeses for flavor: cheddar, havarti, smoked gouda, gorgonzola, feta and any other of your favorites.

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Is evaporated milk better than heavy cream for mac and cheese? ›

It is better to use heavy cream for Mac and Cheese instead of milk, or better yet, use evaporated milk which has the thickness of heavy cream without all of the fat! Furthermore, it is more stable than heavy cream so your Macaroni and Cheese is less likely to curdle or separate.

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Why is evaporated milk better for mac and cheese? ›

Similar recipes call for cooking pasta in milk, which can scorch. Cooking in water and adding evaporated milk toward the end fixes this problem. Evaporated milk contains protein micelles, which help keep an emulsified sauce smooth and creamy.

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How to keep mac and cheese creamy? ›

You want equal amounts of butter and flour by weight. This is key. Throw in too much flour, and sure the sauce might get thick, but it also might taste floury and be lumpy. Even if you get the roux right, use too much or reduce your sauce down too far, and the macaroni and cheese will turn out dry.

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Is cream better than milk in mac and cheese? ›

To make mac and cheese without milk, the best choice is to find something that has a similar texture and a milk flavor. Things like heavy cream, almond milk, oat milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and even pasta water all work very well in boxed mac and cheese.

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Why put mustard in mac and cheese? ›

Mustard Powder: The secret ingredient you should always add to your Mac and cheese. The acidity in the mustard helps cut through the fat. You can find it in the spice section of any major grocery store. Otherwise, swap it for 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of Dijon or yellow mustard to taste or omit it.

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Why does my homemade mac and cheese have no flavor? ›

Try adding a little more salt first, because that might fix it. If the problem was the cheese you use doesn't have much flavor, then try adding some other flavors, such has mustard or hot sauce. The next time you make it, try to find some more strongly flavor cheese, or adding more cheese.

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What brings out the flavor of cheese? ›

Cheese flavor is influenced by many factors including milk source, milk thermal treatment, type and dose of lactic starter culture, process conditions, and time and temperature of ripening.

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What kind of pasta is best for mac and cheese? ›

By definition, classic macaroni and cheese should be made with, well, macaroni, a style broadly defined as any short, cylindrical extruded pasta. This includes tubes like ziti, penne, rigatoni and, yes, elbows, as well as corkscrew shapes like fusilli.

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What's the difference between cheddar cheese and sharp cheddar cheese? ›

Aging is the only difference between mild and sharper cheddar. The longer cheese is aged naturally, the sharper and more pronounced the cheddar flavor becomes. Mild Cheddar cheese is generally aged for 2 to 3 months, whereas an extra sharp might be aged for as long as a year.

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Why is my homemade mac and cheese grainy? ›

Why is my mac n cheese sauce grainy? The sauce can turn grainy if the cheese is added too quickly, the heat is too high, or if pre-shredded cheese with anti-caking agents is used. Melt cheese slowly over low heat and use freshly grated cheese.

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Best Cheese to Use When Making Mac and Cheese | Premio (2024)