Was this contest somehow rigged by Kraft? In the end it turned out to just be a financial decision by the chef: In great American tradition, he bought the cheapest protein possible. At times, cheese itself has shared a similar trajectory.
Cheesemaking, which began 10, years ago, was originally about survival for a farm family or community: taking a very perishable protein milk and transforming it into something less perishable cheese so that there would be something to eat at a later date. Many of us today think of cheese in the context of tradition, flavor, or saving family farms, but a basic goal—whether a producer is making farm-made cheddar or concocting the cheeseless dairy product Velveeta—has always been getting as much edible food from a gallon of milk as possible.
Cheese is vulnerable to mold, rot, and maggots, not to mention pitfalls like excess salt. Many generations of cheesemakers have tossed countless bad batches, which meant feeding a lot of precious protein to their farm animals instead of their families. The first cheese factory in the U. Before that, all cheese made in the United States was made on a farm, usually by the farm wife or—on prosperous farms—a cheese maid or an enslaved woman.
Processing cheese was a good way to make food for soldiers at war, to turn safe but not-as-good-as-standard cheese into edible food, and to save producers when there was a glut in the market and too much cheese to sell.
Macaroni and cheese has been served as long as there has been a United States of America, but in a 20th-century economy driven by convenience packaging and industrialization, it was elevated to an ideal American food: Pasta and processed cheese are very cheap to make and easy to ship and store, and they certainly fill up a belly.
As with many foods, white culture and African-American culture diverge on the make and use of macaroni and cheese. Food historian Adrian Miller points out that while Thomas Jefferson often gets credit for popularizing macaroni and cheese in the United States, it was of course his enslaved black chef James Hemmings who learned to cook it. In the Antebellum South, mac and cheese was a weekend and celebration food. Many African Americans have continued this tradition to this day.
Anyway, that's one story. It is more likely that Jefferson encountered the dish in Italy and brought back the recipe.
Origin of "Macaroni and Cheese". Return to topics » Pasta. Photo: abcnews. Macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food. Loved by people of all ages, a steaming hot bowl of pasta and melted cheese has the potential to make everything right with the world.
So who came up with the idea to combine elbow macaroni with creamy cheese to create this simple, yet perfectly complementary concoction? As you might expect, mac and cheese traces its roots to Italy, home of many culinary delights. The " Liber de Coquina ," or "Book of Cooking," an Italian cookbook from the 13th century, includes a recipe called de lasanis that foodie historians believe is the first macaroni and cheese recipe.
The recipe calls for sheet pasta cut into 2-inch 5-centimeter squares, cooked in water and tossed with grated cheese, likely Parmesan [source: Wright ]. From then on, macaroni and cheese grew in popularity across Europe. In colonial America , casserole dishes similar to today's mac and cheese were served at New England church suppers, where they probably originated from "receipts," or recipes, passed along from English relatives.
The dish was primarily reserved for the upper classes until the Industrial Revolution made pasta production easier. Amateur historians have often credited Thomas Jefferson with introducing macaroni and cheese to the United States. But this is wrong. Jefferson wasn't the first to introduce macaroni with or without cheese to America, nor did he invent the recipe. It is possible that he helped popularize macaroni and cheese, though, because he likely served it to dinner guests while president.
But it was Jefferson's enslaved Black chef James Hemmings who perfected the recipe. Hemmings learned French cooking techniques while in Europe with Jefferson before he was president, and when they returned to the states, Hemming put his own spin on macaroni and cheese.
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