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Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

nytimes.com

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Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#161

Post by jamie_ca »

unprepare wrote: post #119
douche wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been all that impressed by Annies (weirdly enough, I remember this being a view bordering on heresy when I was in college...), it struck me as being too expensive and too fussy to make. Adult-Kraft dinner is too easy to make - substitute real macaroni, and cheddar instead of the florescent orange cheese dust, same milk and butter. I mix in some American slices or Velveeta-esque process cheese, since I thin…

>too fussy to make 1. boil water 2 stir in pasta, cook 8-10 minutes 3 strain pasta 4 add 3 Tbsp of milk 5 sprinkle cheese powder 6 add pasta and combine [1] And from kraft its: 1 boil water, stir in pasta, cook 8-10 minutes 2 drain, return to pan 3 add milk, butter, cheese powder and combine [2] Its the exact same process either way. Are you saying you buy kraft dinner boxes and then use only the macaroni noodles (ma…

Pretty sure he means: Buy your macaroni in bulk, and just shred a half cup or so of cheddar to stir in with the milk/butter.

Prep is the same, but it's actually cheaper to make.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#162

Post by trm42 »

jerf wrote: post #27
kabdib wrote: post #9

... and this is why people with severe allergies always always always read the ingredients list, even if the packaging has not changed. And always carry emergency medication.

Since I've discovered I've had celiac (the real deal) ~6 years ago, I've read a lot more ingredient labels than I used to, and I can vouch for the fact that food formulations change more than you'd expect without fanfare. For all that you might find "gluten free!" splattered all over a lot of things, I can tell you there have also been a lot of foods that have silently gone gluten-free over the years, along with tryi…

In many cases companies are not advertising "gluten free" as it may require additional tests and certifications which cost extra money and extra effort, especially smaller companies avoid these unless it's really important for their brand.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#163

Post by dhimes »

nether wrote: post #151
mbesto wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make no mistake about it, this is clearly a marketing ploy by Kraft's ad agency. They are battling the minds of consumers who are (as of recent) continually seeing companies change ingredients and then be marketed to because it's "preservatives are bad...now with less preservatives!", with an undesirable side effect of "hmmm, but it tastes different". Coke Zero is a great example of this effect. I'm not so sure Reddi…

Try dumping a can of tuna into your Kraft™ Mac & Cheese. Delicious.

I also add a can of cream of mushroom soup. It was a staple when I was in college. I named it Mancaroni and tried to feed it to my three boys. They weren't buying it. There wasn't enough hot sauce or Old Bay in the house to get them to eat it. But I like it!

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#165

Post by khedoros »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #65
gkop wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither parent nor grandparent references UPC. Grandparent references the list of ingredients.

Sorry about that! I didn't assume someone would suggest having a mobile device OCR an ingredients label, versus looking up a UPC code tied to an ingredients list and groking for your allergies. One is easy, the other is hard.

> One is easy, the other is hard.

There are APIs and libraries for OCR, so that might not be so bad (even on a mobile device). A low-end phone is faster than the first PCs I did OCR on anyhow, and about 20 years more research has gone into algorithms.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#166

Post by Zancarius »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #106
maxerickson wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy an emulsifier and add that directly (sodium citrate). Sodium citrate mac cheese is enough to Google for.

You can also just buy the powder by itself, King Arthur Flour sells a white cheddar that's pretty good.

I second this, although I buy from Nuts since I can get it by the pound. There are other bulk distributors out there as well, although the quality does vary. Pick the one you like best!

White cheddar powder is also great if you want to make a cheese sauce with a roux base reasonably quickly and for some reason don't want to use shredded cheese (I usually use both, however, but it is faster with a powder).

Here's some of the ones I use:

https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/powders/cheddar-cheese.html

https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/powders/white-cheddar-cheese....

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#167

Post by frogpelt »

dhimes wrote: post #163
nether wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try dumping a can of tuna into your Kraft™ Mac & Cheese. Delicious.

I also add a can of cream of mushroom soup. It was a staple when I was in college. I named it Mancaroni and tried to feed it to my three boys. They weren't buying it. There wasn't enough hot sauce or Old Bay in the house to get them to eat it. But I like it!

In addition to the tuna?

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#168

Post by rhodysurf »

eveningcoffee wrote: post #36
jerf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since I've discovered I've had celiac (the real deal) ~6 years ago, I've read a lot more ingredient labels than I used to, and I can vouch for the fact that food formulations change more than you'd expect without fanfare. For all that you might find "gluten free!" splattered all over a lot of things, I can tell you there have also been a lot of foods that have silently gone gluten-free over the years, along with tryi…

I can tell you there have also been a lot of foods that have silently gone gluten-free over the years, along with trying to minimize their use of the other major allergens. Good find! But as have been indicated here http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35727244 , this may be counterproductive.

That is not how Celiac works. It is an Auto-Immune Disease

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#169

Post by scrumper »

mathattack wrote: post #110
symfoniq wrote: post #77

Having young children, there's almost always a box of macaroni and cheese in the house. My kids, who fancy themselves mac & cheese connoisseurs, started complaining about the taste of Kraft a couple of months ago. So now when Kraft advertises on TV that they changed their mac & cheese and nobody noticed, my eight- and six-year-old just roll their eyes. I suppose the upside is, they're already learning that you can't…

I've started making our own (just macaroni and melted cheese) with my kids. It tastes better, but the one thing we haven't been able to replicate is the bright orange color.

My mother's recipe has completely ruined US-style mac and cheese for me. I get it, this isn't snobbery: I know it's a phenomenal comfort food and it's a trivially easy, un-refusable kid fuel that I regularly use to silence my screaming younglings, but I just can't enjoy it personally.

Her recipe goes something like this, E&OE, bit fuzzy on quantities, but dear Lord it's delicious:

Get your macaroni boiling away.

Then in a separate saucepan:

Couple tablespoons of butter.

Melt that.

Tablespoon of white flour.

Tablespoon of Coleman's mustard powder.

Incorporate gradually, stirring until it's smooth paste.

Milk (I forget how much, I know how much to pour, like a mug's worth?)

Add slowly, keep stirring, keep smooth.

Sufficient grated cheddar cheese, I like about 50% mature, 50% lighter, put about half in.

Same, keep it smooth.

Season around about now.

Stir in the macaroni, getting all the goo worked in.

Stir in a large tin of whole plum tomatoes.

Keep stirring, get it all even.

Transfer to a baking dish.

Put the remaining cheese on top.

Heat in an oven, 350f, 45m I think just get it hot and melty.

Brown under the broiler to get awesome caramelized crispy cheese top.

Serve with lettuce so you don't feel like a total fat bastard (actually the ice cold crunch is a great complement).

Sleep.

Re: Kraft Reveals Revamped Mac and Cheese, 50M Boxes Later

#170

Post by kaishiro »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #159
potatolicious wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because some people love to be contrarian/complain. Some people love being armchair experts on things. It's the same thing every time some major website redesigns some feature - lots of consternation about how the new thing is so much worse and how this will spell the end of the website as we know it. Petitions to revert the change will be made, chain emails will be sent, the whole works. And then a week later nobody…

Yes, but by this logic, people will complain when you finally tell them, too.

I think the point is that by doing this you're undercutting the validity of the complaint. It feels more transparent that someone is complaining about the change after it having been explained to them when they clearly haven't noticed it in the preceding months.
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