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ByMaria Scinto/
Once upon a time, if a recipe called for milk, if anyone were to ask the question "What kind of milk?" everyone else would think they'd lost their mind. What kind of milk? Duh, the kind that comes out of a cow, what other kind could there be? In latter years, as people became concerned about the amount of fat in their diets, store shelves began to feature a much wider array of milks and milk products: skim, 1%, 2%, whole milk, and half-and-half (the other half being cream). Even more recently, plant-based "milk" sales have been soaring, something that CNBC says is taking quite a bite (or perhaps a gulp) out of dairy industry revenue.
While it's great to have such a variety of milks (and "milks") available for purchase, not every product works equally well for every purpose. Case in point: macaroni and cheese. While yes, you can make it with any milk you like, or even without milk altogether, if you're looking to make a classic comfort food that tastes exactly as mac and cheese should, there's only one type of milk you should be using.
Mac and cheese needs whole milk to achieve perfection
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According to Chef's Notes, the basis for the cheese part of mac and cheese is something called béchamel sauce.Béchamel is one of what are known as the five "mother sauces" of French cuisine, and it basically consists of fat, flour, and milk. Even the boxed-type of mac and cheese involves a sauce made from milk, butter, and powdered cheese that does double-duty as a stand-in for flour.
Should you attempt to make the béchamel from low-fat (or non-fat) milk or a milk substitute, it won't be nearly as stable as one made from milk with a higher fat content and may tend to have a somewhat greasy look and texture. In fact, you can even go all-out and make a super-deluxe mac and cheese using half-and-half or cream, if you dare. If you must use a low-fat milk, you should probably try to boost the fat content in some other way; Chef's Notes suggests mixing 2% milk with whipping cream in a 3:1 ratio.
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