Mac and Cheese With Evaporated Milk

First, the recipe must have enough liquid once combined with the cheeses, in this case, evaporated milk. It is important to use evaporated milk which stabilizes the cheeses and prevent them from separating. Also use quality cheeses which melt better and produce silkier sauces.  NEVER use pre-bagged cheeses for sauces or your destined for grainy/gritty sauce failure.

It is better to use heavy cream for Mac and Cheese instead of milk, or better yet, use evaporated milk which has the thickness of heavy cream without all of the fat!  Furthermore, it is more stable than heavy cream so your Macaroni and Cheese is less likely to curdle or separate.  

The starch in the flour stabilizes the melting cheeses which prevents it from breaking or turning stringy or gritty.  It also is the base of the béchamel which thickens the sauce so it’s rich and creamy.

Evaporated milk adds creaminess and body to Macaroni and Cheese without the fat and heaviness of heavy cream. Evaporated milk is canned, stabilized homogenized cow’s milk from which 60 percent of the water has been removed.  This means it is thicker than just milk and more stable than heavy cream and less likely to curdle or separate. 

Seasoning your Macaroni and Cheese recipe with onion powder, garlic powder, dried parsley, salt, pepper and red pepper which flakes infuse the velvety sauce with complex flavor. You could also try other spice blends for a unique twist like Cajun, jerk or taco seasoning. You can also add bacon, sausage, chicken, ground beef, artichokes, broccoli, etc. for additional texture and flavor.

The one cheese you will almost always find in Macaroni and Cheese recipes is sharp cheddar.  It is flavorful, inexpensive, easy to find, and melts easily.  Sharp cheddar should be the building block of your Mac and Cheese recipe, to which you can add one or two different cheeses to enhance the flavor, such as a full-flavored cheese (such as Gruyere) and a more mild, silky cheese (such as Gouda, Fontina, Muenster, etc.). 

There are a few keys to avoiding grainy Macaroni and Cheese and instead creating the the creamy, silky smooth recipe of your dreams:
1. Use full fat cheese that you shred yourself from the block. Pre-shredded cheeses are coated with chemicals that will prevent the cheese from melting beautifully. 
2. Use enough butter when making the roux, at least an equal amount of butter (or slightly more) as flour to create a roux.  If you don’t use enough butter, the roux won’t become smooth and will remain gritty.
3. The roux should be cooked until it becomes really smooth, about three minutes.  
4. Remove the béchamel from the heat before adding the cheeses. If the béchamel is too hot when you add the cheese, then the emulsifiers and coagulants will break down and the proteins in the cheeses will clump resulting in grainy sauce.  So, make sure your béchamel is cool enough by removing the pan from the heat completely before adding the cheeses.