A certain type of recipe resides in the collective memory of a community for free. Years after it was first posted, people still bring it up in comment threads. Others inquire about its location, receive three different answers, and ultimately piece it together from a description of a YouTube video hidden beneath a Nashville Hot Turkey recipe. That is precisely what happened with the Mythical Kitchen mac and cheese, and the difficulty of finding it only increased demand.
Josh Scherer, better known as the Mythical Chef behind the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel, has amassed a fan base thanks in part to his culinary prowess and in part to his genuine humor while elucidating the significance of food science. He doesn’t have a precious approach to mac and cheese. It’s useful, a little disorganized, and effective. Nicole Enayati first shared the recipe on social media in November 2022, and it quickly gained popularity. In the MythicalKitchen subreddit, people bookmarked it and returned to it before Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving.
The base is a traditional roux, which is made by whisking equal parts butter and all-purpose flour in a big pan over medium heat for one or two minutes, or until it begins to smell slightly nutty. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
The liquid is where things start to get interesting. The recipe calls for a full can of evaporated milk along with 1.5 cups of regular milk and a cup of heavy cream, rather than relying solely on whole milk. Because evaporated milk contains less water than fresh milk, the sauce thickens more organically and doesn’t require as much flour. Once you try it that way, it feels like a step backward because it’s a small change that yields a noticeably richer result.
More than most people realize, the spice blend is important. Together, mustard powder, cayenne, onion powder, granulated garlic, black pepper, chicken bouillon, and salt create a background warmth that prevents the dish from being bland. Without a strong seasoning, mac and cheese usually tastes like dairy and noodles. Here, the bouillon in particular does subtle work, contributing a savory note that is difficult to detect but simple to overlook when it’s not present.
The cheese situation is another. The recipe calls for a combination of Gruyère, Monterey Jack, sharp cheddar, and processed American cheese, the latter of which is doing more than most people realize. American singles and Velveeta are examples of processed cheese products that contain sodium citrate, which serves as an emulsifier. Instead of making the sauce greasy or cracked, it keeps it glossy and smooth. The ultra-silky queso you get at some restaurants is made at home using the same chemical principle. Scherer has been outspoken about this; the processed cheese is the point, not a compromise.
It’s also important to take the hand-shredding advice seriously. Cellulose or potato starch is applied to pre-shredded cheese from a bag to keep it from clumping while being stored. This coating prevents the sauce from melting, giving it a somewhat gummy or gritty texture. Shredding from a block actually alters the result, but it takes an additional five minutes. It’s the type of thing that seems fussy until you taste the difference.
To assemble, simply melt half of the cheese blend into the sauce off the heat, fold in the cooked macaroni, transfer to a greased casserole dish, top with the remaining cheese, and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes. It is intentional to cook the pasta just under al dente in advance so that the noodles finish absorbing liquid and flavor in the oven rather than arriving soggy. This method, which was taken from restaurant kitchens, is equally effective at home.
Recipes like these, which are sourced from the community, shared via Reddit threads, Twitter replies, and hidden video descriptions, seem to have a deeper meaning than well-crafted recipes from food blogs. They have been put to the test in actual kitchens by individuals who made mistakes and reported them. One such recipe is the mac and cheese from The Mythical Kitchen. To understand why people kept asking where to find it, it was worth making once.
