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Why is my macaroni and cheese so dry? I mix 3 tablespoons of flour and 1 stick of butter in a saucepan and let it melt. Then I add 1.5 cans Carnation milk, 2 cups cheese, and 1-8oz package of cream cheese, stir and add to macaroni. Please tell me what I am doing wrong.
By Onesummer
What do you mean by dry? Too much pasta and too little sauce?
Or next day sauce "gone"? The too much too little scenario is easy, decrease or increase as needed. Next day sauce "gone" means the pasta absorbed it, reserve some of the cheese sauce for a refresher for left overs, or rejuvenate with regular milk.
I think the simple solution is more plain milk or water in your recipe. Might back off a tablespoon of the flour too, which just thickens it to glop. The starch in the macaroni without any flour should thicken it fine if you're baking it. If you want a more creamy sauce, less flour, more regular milk. A "classic" southern baked mac n cheese has an egg it, which makes for a very rich, (too rich for me) dish, but the texture is almost more like a custard with the egg. If you want a creamier mac n cheese, put in more milk or water than you think, and after baking it will thicken up from the starch in the pasta. Hope this helps.
Just reading back on your recipe, I would simply try it without the flour at all. Just the starch of the pasta and the cream cheese should make a creamy rich sauce, even if not baking it.
One more thought: If you're using pre-shredded bagged cheese, sometimes they add cornstarch to the bag cheese so it doesn't clump, and cornstarch is yet another thickener. So also try grating your own cheese vs. the bag stuff.
