Blue Box Style Mac and Cheese (Homemade Mix)
A homemade pantry mix of cheddar cheese powder, dry milk and mustard that turns hot elbows into bright, smooth boxed-style mac in about 15 minutes. Inspired by Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, not official.
Inspired by Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Not an official Kraft recipe: Kraft does not publish its cheese sauce formula, and nothing here claims to reproduce it.
The box starts with processed cheese. Gastropod reports that James L. Kraft received his first processed cheese patent in 1916 for a cooking method that killed the microbes that made cheddar spoil (transcript, 2018:). The Chicago History Museum says Kraft introduced boxed macaroni and cheese in 1937 at 19 cents a box, and that it was a hit through the Great Depression and into World War II, when rationing was on and working women had little time at home (July 14, 2020:). News coverage of Kraft's 2022 renaming, quoting the company, says it launched as Kraft Dinner in a yellow box, sold 8 million boxes in its first year and switched to blue boxes and the Macaroni and Cheese name in 1954. In Canada it is still Kraft Dinner, and journalist Sasha Chapman called it Canada's de facto national dish (Gastropod; Wikipedia:).
🇺🇸 This one is American
A homemade pantry mix of cheddar cheese powder, dry milk and mustard that turns hot elbows into bright, smooth boxed-style mac in about 15 minutes. Inspired by Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, not official.
🇺🇸 The original
The oldest American recipe we could read, from 1824, is simple: boiled macaroni layered with butter and grated cheese and baked until it browns. No cheese sauce, no box. See the Virginia House-Wife Baked Macaroni (1824) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Powdered cheese can't break
Cheddar cheese powder is cheese that has been melted, sprayed into tiny droplets and dried (ATK), so it dissolves into butter and liquid without the clumping or oiling out that grated cheese can do.
Dry milk adds body
The milk powder supplies extra milk solids, so a small splash of water makes a sauce that coats like the boxed kind.
Step by step
- Step 1
Make the mix: whisk the cheese powder, milk powder and dry mustard in a large bowl until completely even, about 1 minute. Store it airtight at room temperature (ATK says at least 2 months).
- Step 2
Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Add the macaroni and salt and cook, stirring now and then, until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Whisk the stored mix right in its container so the powders are evenly blended, and measure out 1 cup.
- Step 4
Drain the macaroni and return it to the hot pot, off the heat.
- Step 5
Add the butter, 1 cup mix and the water or milk and stir with a rubber spatula until no dry powder remains and the sauce is smooth and glossy, about 1 minute. Serve right away.
Blue Box Style Mac and Cheese (Homemade Mix)
Serves 4 (about 1 cup each) · about 4 cups, plus about 2 cups mix left for later · 25 min total
Mix (makes about 3 cups, enough for 12 servings)
- 2 1/2 cups cheddar cheese powder
- 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
- 1 tsp dry mustard
For 4 servings
- 2 cups elbow macaroni (about 7 1/2 oz)
- 1 tbsp table salt, for the water
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup of the mix
- 1/2 cup water or milk
Method
- Make the mix: whisk the cheese powder, milk powder and dry mustard in a large bowl until completely even, about 1 minute. Store it airtight at room temperature (ATK says at least 2 months).
- Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Add the macaroni and salt and cook, stirring now and then, until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Whisk the stored mix right in its container so the powders are evenly blended, and measure out 1 cup.
- Drain the macaroni and return it to the hot pot, off the heat.
- Add the butter, 1 cup mix and the water or milk and stir with a rubber spatula until no dry powder remains and the sauce is smooth and glossy, about 1 minute. Serve right away.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Kids, "Macaroni and Cheese Mix" by Andrea Rivera Wawrzyn (2023). ATK's mix makes 12 single servings; we keep the jar recipe and scale the cooking to 4 servings (2 cups dry elbows, 4 tbsp butter, 1 cup mix, 1/2 cup water). Using milk instead of water is our option, following the box's own butter-and-milk method as Wikipedia describes it. Inspired by, not official. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Cheddar cheese powder is sold in some supermarkets' spice or bulk aisles and online (ATK).
- Want it creamier? Use milk instead of water, or add 1 more tbsp butter.
- Make it for one: 1/2 cup elbows, 1 tbsp butter, 1/4 cup mix and 2 tbsp water, as ATK writes it.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Kraft launched it in 1937 at 19 cents. Disputed: the Chicago History Museum and Kraft's own anniversary story say 1937 and 19 cents; Wikipedia says it was first marketed in many US states in 1936 at about 15 cents, as "dinner for four in nine minutes".
- A salesman invented it with rubber bands. Folklore: Wikipedia says a St. Louis salesman, Grant Leslie, reportedly rubber-banded grated cheese to pasta boxes, but its sources are thin, and a food history site we saw only in search results says Leslie actually sold a rival quick-cooking pasta.
- It was a wartime staple. Documented: the Chicago History Museum says it was a hit into World War II during rationing, and Wikipedia says one ration stamp bought two boxes.
- Canada eats more of it. Documented by Wikipedia: Canadians buy about 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold worldwide each week.
- This is the real recipe. Folklore: it is a copycat, inspired by, not official.
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Virginia House-Wife Baked Macaroni (1824)
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