4 5 1 4 1 2 1 . Inspired by Stouffer’s mac and cheese, in the red box from the freezer aisle, this homemade version delivers the same molten creaminess. As a subscriber, you homemade macaroni and cheese 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
This recipe, inspired by Stouffer’s mac and cheese, delivers the best of all worlds: creamy, saucy comfort, with a consistency that’s slightly more set than a stovetop version. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. For those nostalgic enough to look into them, old restaurant menus, like telescopes, can reveal distant worlds. A Stouffer’s restaurant menu dated Friday, July 5, 1955, for instance, lists a macaroni and cheese dinner plate for a dollar, among other entrees like chicken fricassee, broiled whitefish and breaded pork steak with apple sauce. The mac and cheese came with a trio of sides: spinach soufflé, julienne carrots and a tossed green salad. This is the same Stouffer’s that has become best known for frozen dinners sold in a distinctive red box.
The company began as a family business in the early 1900s, operating a small dairy stand in Cleveland before expanding into restaurants, hotels and freezer-aisle products. Vernon Bigelow Stouffer inherited the business and turned it into an American food empire. Some may consider Stouffer’s a metonym for TV dinner. But from the French-bread pizza to the lasagna with meat sauce, Stouffer’s products are relics that also remain household staples decades later. 42, was growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, her grandparents would heat up individual 12-ounce trays of Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese whenever she and her sister stayed over. The crispy burnt bits were the best parts.