FOOD NEWS
Buttermilk Is The Key Ingredient For A Tangy, Creamy Mac And Cheese
By Betsy Parks
There are many ways to make homemade mac and cheese even more exceptional. If you want to give your cheese sauce extra zing and tang, swap the milk for a splash of buttermilk.
Buttermilk is just regular milk fermented with lactic acid bacteria and is traditionally the liquid left after churning cream into butter — hence the tangy flavor.
It brings depth, complexity, and acidity to the cheeses that break up the heaviness from all the fat and carbohydrates. You can use store-bought or homemade buttermilk.
The simple method is to substitute equal amounts of buttermilk for milk and mix the pasta, cheese, and liquid together before baking or in a saucepan for stovetop mac and cheese.
If you want to make macaroni and cheese with a creamy bechamel sauce, consider subbing out half of the milk or cream for buttermilk to get the same benefits of the full-fat dairy.
For this method, make your roux as you typically do, but whisk in a mixture of milk and buttermilk, then add in your shredded cheese before combining everything with the pasta.