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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

#121

Post by gambiting »

logfromblammo wrote: post #114
gambiting wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep saying to myself that I need to go to one of those world food sections at my local supermarket and buy a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese to try it,but I always forget - is it really worth it?

If you are paying more than the equivalent of US$1 per box, no. Kraft Mac & Cheese is the spiritual equivalent of top ramen noodles, artificial cheese flavor. There is no intrinsic American cultural value to it. Many of us do grant it some nostalgia value, because we grew up without a lot of money, and it was, and still is, cheap and filling food for poor people. A suitable protein accompaniment is a can of chunk lig…

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=266230936

Looks like it's ~$3 for a pack on this side of the pond.

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

#123

Post by Symbiote »

logfromblammo wrote: post #114
gambiting wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep saying to myself that I need to go to one of those world food sections at my local supermarket and buy a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese to try it,but I always forget - is it really worth it?

If you are paying more than the equivalent of US$1 per box, no. Kraft Mac & Cheese is the spiritual equivalent of top ramen noodles, artificial cheese flavor. There is no intrinsic American cultural value to it. Many of us do grant it some nostalgia value, because we grew up without a lot of money, and it was, and still is, cheap and filling food for poor people. A suitable protein accompaniment is a can of chunk lig…

It's actually an English recipe.

Here is an 1859 version of the recipe, from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10136/pg10136-images.htm...

And here's the original, from 1786 in The Experienced English Housekeeper: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.rsmcze;view=1up;se...

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

#124

Post by hinkley »

douche wrote: post #99
dunham wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and kid are pretty happy with Annie's. Might be worth trying if you're looking for another brand. (The only stuff I eat these days is homemade, typically gruyère-based, but we keep Annie's on hand in case we don't have leftovers for lunch.)

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…

I was raised on Velveeta but eventually the taste of corroded metal and my awareness of frankenfood got to me and I stopped buying the stuff. Luckily I discovered Colby Jack, which as far as legitimate cheeses go is closest in mouth feel and flavor to what Velveeta tries to be. It's awesome for toasted cheese sandwiches.

Not salty enough for mac and cheese though. I've tried adding salt, or garlic salt, or parmesean, or a mix of the three. I haven't perfected it yet.

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

#125

Post by beamatronic »

dunham wrote: post #82
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…

My wife and kid are pretty happy with Annie's. Might be worth trying if you're looking for another brand. (The only stuff I eat these days is homemade, typically gruyère-based, but we keep Annie's on hand in case we don't have leftovers for lunch.)

Annie's is good, and the one from Trader Joe's is not bad also, and plus it is very low priced, especially given that it is organic.

http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article/1854

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

#126

Post by Symbiote »

gambiting wrote: post #121
logfromblammo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are paying more than the equivalent of US$1 per box, no. Kraft Mac & Cheese is the spiritual equivalent of top ramen noodles, artificial cheese flavor. There is no intrinsic American cultural value to it. Many of us do grant it some nostalgia value, because we grew up without a lot of money, and it was, and still is, cheap and filling food for poor people. A suitable protein accompaniment is a can of chunk lig…

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=266230936 Looks like it's ~$3 for a pack on this side of the pond.

That's got an "Imported by" name and so on — I suspect it's sold in the foreign foods section, along with other American novelties.

The more traditionally British options are probably these:

1) In a can: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=252750031

2) Cheese sauce: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=258436291

3) As a ready meal / microwave meal: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=272971891

But I'm more amused by the "Tesco Easy Entertaining Macaroni Cheese 1.4 Kilograms". Is it still necessary to thank the cook, if served this at a party? http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=291659455

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

#127

Post by draw_down »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #4

This strategy is how I imagine the "least painful" transition from init to systemd in a distro would go: someone would make the change, tell everyone to update, and then ask if anyone noticed.

That would be like if Kraft replaced the macaroni with nails without mentioning it, and then later asked if anyone noticed.

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

#128

Post by logfromblammo »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #68
kingosticks wrote: post #35

Are Kraft and Mondelez the same company? They now own British chocolate company Cadbury and have received a lot of criticism for changing recipes there (amongst other things). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/7-ways-ca...

Kraft renamed themselves Mondelez after spinning off grocery brands who now use the Kraft name - Philadelphia cheese etc. Mondelez are well on the way to destroying the Cadbury brand here. One of the things Kraft made a big deal of during the takeover was promising to keep a particular UK plant open. 7 days after finalisation they announced the plant's closure. Creme Eggs are now revolting, It's not even Cadbury choc…

Bear in mind that British Cadbury's, after reformulation, is still better than American Cadbury's.

Chicago may be the candy capital of the world, but let's just say that not all innovation in confectionery is to the ultimate good of the consumer. I don't know how, exactly, it has come to this, but I believe many of the chocolate-like products sold in the US are now labeled as "chocolate candy", as they no longer even meet any of the American legal definitions for chocolate.

It makes it really easy to adhere to a low-sugar diet when all the "chocolate" around you is junk.

Be glad if your chocolate still has actual cocoa butter in it, instead of coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, or shea butter. Or even sunflower or safflower oils!

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

#129

Post by jedberg »

We did the same thing at reddit when we upgraded the search system.

First we put a little survey on every search result that said "Are you satisfied with these results? yes/no". After we collected enough data, we changed the entire search backend out, but told no one.

After a few months of collecting data showing the satisfaction go from ~70% to ~90%, we made a blog post explaining what we did.

Here's the real kicker though that makes it different from Kraft -- we didn't say that we had done it months ago, so we kept getting comments about how it was "so much better this week vs. last week".

We did that a few times. When we moved the site to EC2, we announced it months after the fact, and people would claim to have noticed the "sudden change".

It's an interesting look into the human psyche.

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

#130

Post by checker »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #68
kingosticks wrote: post #35

Are Kraft and Mondelez the same company? They now own British chocolate company Cadbury and have received a lot of criticism for changing recipes there (amongst other things). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/7-ways-ca...

Kraft renamed themselves Mondelez after spinning off grocery brands who now use the Kraft name - Philadelphia cheese etc. Mondelez are well on the way to destroying the Cadbury brand here. One of the things Kraft made a big deal of during the takeover was promising to keep a particular UK plant open. 7 days after finalisation they announced the plant's closure. Creme Eggs are now revolting, It's not even Cadbury choc…

According to Wikipedia, they transitioned from chocolate (which legally in the US must only contain cocoa butter fats) to "cocoa-flavored", which can contain less or no cocoa butter and includes cheaper fats such as vegetable oil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadbury_Creme_Egg#Changes_to_p... http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-may19apr19-story.html

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