Beat This: Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Challenge Winner - Food and Home

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More Beat This: Recipe Challenges

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Beat This...and the winner is....

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Over the last month or so, I have learned a lot about macaroni and cheese. We got more than 80 entries for our first Beat This cooking contest – plus four for other dishes readers wanted to share (Girdle Buster Pie, Bok Choy Salad, Green Bean Casserole, and Pizza).

I learned that people are passionate about mac and cheese. I learned that there is a range of opinions about what mac and cheese actually is. Some people make it with egg noodles, while others say that makes it a casserole, not authentic mac and cheese. Some use evaporated milk, a kind of shortcut to a nice white sauce. Some use condensed soup – I got recipes that involved tomato, cream of tomato, cream of chicken, and cheddar cheese soup. Some use egg, or sour cream. Some even put in corn. Most people use cheddar, but there are a fair number who also use American. I got one recipe that included goat cheese, and several that called for mozzarella, fontina, cottage cheese, Gruyere, or (like Ann Hodgman's) cream cheese.

I spent days hungrily poring over all these variations. Once I pulled what I considered the most promising five (sent in by Helen Alten, Amy Hunt, Kim Neumann, Debra Shepard, and Andrea Yoon), recipe testing began. It took two days. (Hey, there's only so much mac and cheese a person can eat in one sitting.)

Here's what surprised me: Nobody's recipe beat Ann's – though a couple came really close. The Wondertime staff rates recipes based on a numeric system devised by our test kitchen. Ann's recipe scored a 7.9; the next best recipe scored a 7.5. (It had bacon in it, as Ann suggested.) That means the Cuisinart stand mixer prize will be offered again in another Beat This contest.

Here are some tips for those considering entering future contests. Make sure your recipe is clearly written, and be specific about amounts, ingredients, cooking time, and pan size. All those things will boost your chances of winning.

I've already started to get entries for the Beat This Thanksgiving side dishes extravaganza: pie, stuffing, Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, and sweet biscuits. My job description demands that I play a key role in the testing of each recipe that makes the semi-finals. I really can't complain.

— Rachel Simpson (editor of Wondertime's Beat This column)

See the winning Mac & Cheese recipe