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Whitemagic
06-18-2008, 12:58 AM
Does anyone have a recommended recipe for the cheese sauce part of macaroni and cheese made from food storage provisions, including cheese powder, and other stuff, like perhaps powdered milk, or margarine powder?

Walton Feeds sells both a powdered "Cheese Blend" and "Cheddar Cheese Powder." I've read their blurb on the Cheese Blend, and it sounds good. Does anyone have any recommendation on which to store, or if both, what recipes you recommend for one or the other?

I will likely order samples of both, but I am wondering if anyone else has already made a comparison and choice.

Sourdough
06-18-2008, 01:14 AM
Sorry the only thing I know about cheese is how to cut it. Welcome to the forum, the forum police will have a cow if you don't go to the introduction section and tell them about you. Welcome

RobertRogers
06-19-2008, 08:41 AM
Be careful though - alot of stuff poses as "Cheese" when it was really created in a chemistry lab.

tacmedic
06-21-2008, 02:58 AM
I was reading on the honeyville grain website about their cheese powder, and they say just mix the powder with water to make a suitable cheese sauce for just about anything.

Rick
06-21-2008, 06:43 AM
I've had to piece this one together because I couldn't find an actual recipe to use. I have not tried this so some experimentation is going to be required. He's is what I do know.

You can dehydrate cheese but only if it's a low fat cheese like Parmesan, Romano, Asiago or low fat cottage cheese.

Cut the cheese into 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick slices. You'll have to treat the cheese like a high fat meat. I assume the cheese will sweat. If it does, you'll have to use a towel and mop or blot up the liquid a couple of times during the dehydrating process. I know it's treated like fat meat, which oozes the fat during the process and that's what you have to do with meat so I'm assuming you will do the same with cheese.

Use 1 tablespoon powdered milk, dissolved in 1/4 cup water.

(The recipe I have calls for a commercial cheese and mac package so you'll have to estimate the amount of cheese in one of those packets and substitute it with the dehydrated cheese above)

(Enough water to reconstitute the cheese, most items are a 1/1 ratio so I would start with an equal amount of water to the cheese)

6 cups of water for the noodles.

Noodles (I'd use the same amount as in the commercial package to start with)

Dried herbs of choice to taste.

That's about the best I can do. I'm going to be in the woods the rest of the week-end but I'll give this a shot next week and see what kind of luck I have. I you work on it before then it would be nice to know the results.

Frankly, a mac and cheese package would probably last several years and be a lot easier. Just a thought.

crashdive123
06-22-2008, 09:29 AM
While the powdered cheeses and cheese blends will give you quite a bit of versatility in what you can create, if your desire is mac & cheese - I would just buy the boxes of mac & cheese at the store as Rick said. Many, many years ago I used to live on that stuff.

Ridge Wolf
06-22-2008, 01:27 PM
Does anyone have a recommended recipe for the cheese sauce part of macaroni and cheese made from food storage provisions, including cheese powder, and other stuff, like perhaps powdered milk, or margarine powder?

Walton Feeds sells both a powdered "Cheese Blend" and "Cheddar Cheese Powder." I've read their blurb on the Cheese Blend, and it sounds good. Does anyone have any recommendation on which to store, or if both, what recipes you recommend for one or the other?

I will likely order samples of both, but I am wondering if anyone else has already made a comparison and choice.

On a regular box of mac and cheese from the groc. store they tell you how to mix the cheese powder with milk and butter or margarine to get the sauce.

You could use cheese powder and powdered milk, mix the powdered milk separately according to instructions and blend the powdered cheese and butter into the mix to get a sauce, then add salsa or whatever to the mix for zestiness etc. etc..

wareagle69
06-22-2008, 03:08 PM
up here we have the bulk barn every dried product you can think of cept for powdered eggs and sour cream but i buy lots of the mac and cheese mix it is the wifes fav that i make and i buy either the small elbows or the shells mix butter milk and cheese way better and cheaper thn the box stuff

Chris
06-23-2008, 05:00 PM
Actual mac & cheese, restaurant stuff, not box stuff, is made from a bechamel sauce, which is french for a sauce made of flour and milk.

You make a roux, which is flour cooked in oil or butter, equal parts (a few tablespoons of each) then add milk and stir stir stir until it comes to a simmer and thickens, you can add flavorings now, mustard, paprika, usually a little bit of nutmeg, some finely sliced onion.

At this stage you can turn it into numerous sauces or other things, but to make mac & cheese at this stage you simply temper in a couple eggs, stir in the cheese, pour over noodles, and bake.

Now, in bunker-food type situation, you ought to have flour, you ought to have oil, you ought to have powdered milk at least, which I think you could reconstitute and it should still work. The best cheeses are aged for 2 years, so buy a whole wheel and keep on aging it, should be fine, I think. Eggs.. well... I don't think powdered eggs would work, so, raise chickens.

Rick
06-23-2008, 06:39 PM
Powdered eggs should work just fine. Once you reconstitute them you can use them just like "real" eggs.

Chris
06-23-2008, 07:46 PM
so they haven't been cooked? I thought powdered eggs were scrambled, then dried and powdered