Smith’s Country Cheese Mac and Cheese Kit Review

Located in Winchendon, Mass. is Smith's Country Cheese, home of award-winning, hand-crafted Gouda, Cheddar, and Havarti cheeses. They offered me the opportunity to try out their Mac and Cheese Kit, which includes 8 oz. of their sharp Cheddar, 8 oz. of their smoked Gouda, a box of Prince elbow pasta, and a recipe card. Here's the tale of my adventure.

 I checked out the recipe card early on and noticed a slight problem. It required a 3-5 quart slow cooker and we only have a 2 quart one. I figured I had to adjust things a little... Instead of a slow cooker, I went with baking a casserole. With that said, I set out to make some mac and cheese.

Step 1. Make some pasta. That's the easy part. While that's going on I started to shred some cheese. I should have put the cheese in the freezer some to make the shredding go a little easier but that wasn't done. My son snuck off with some of the Gouda shreddings and surprisingly liked it. I wasn't expecting that with the smokey taste.

Then it was time to make the cream sauce with the cheese. I melted the butter, combined it with flour, milk, and cheese before I had a nice tasty topping.

If you time things right, the pasta will be done about the time the sauce finishes. I didn't. Without the necessary crock pot, I changed up the recipe's cooking instructions some. I went the route of 350 degrees for 30 minutes in a glass casserole dish, versus 3-4 hours in the crock pot. In the casserole, I didn't have to layer the pasta and sauce as the instructions called for as it was being spread out much wider in a thinner layer. The improvised cooking method worked out quite well and produced a nicely browned cheese that was just starting to crust over. The recipe also called for buttered bread crumbs, which I didn't use.

Here are the before and after cooking photos.

Overall very tasty cheeses that turned into some great smelling and tasting macaroni and cheese. My son even liked it, and he doesn't eat mac & cheese. Now that I'm done, I've seen Smith's cheese in some local stores and I won't hesitate to get them when I'm in the market for what they make.

Smith’s Gourmet Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Ingredients

• 16 oz box elbow macaroni
• 3 cups cream sauce with cheese
• buttered bread crumbs

Cook macaroni according to the directions on the box. Drain. Pour half the elbows into a greased 3-5 qt. slow cooker. Cover with half the sauce. Add the rest of the macaroni and the remainder of sauce. Top with buttered bread crumbs. (For bread crumbs, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat and stir in 1/2 cup of bread crumbs until well coated.) Cook on low 3-4 hours until bubbly.

Cream Sauce with Cheese

• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 6 Tablespoons flour
• 3 cups milk
• ½ lb. or more of Smith’s Farmstead Smoked Gouda, shredded
• ½ lb. or more of Smith’s Farmstead Sharp Cheddar, shredded
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt butter. Stir in flour to make a paste. Slowly add milk and stir until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sauce comes to a boil. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens. Turn heat to low. Add shredded cheeses and stir until cheeses are completely melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can pick up the Mac and Cheese kits from Smith’s Country Cheese for $18.99 plus shipping ($8.00). They have this recipe and others on their site. You can also can visit them on Facebook to tell them of your experiences.

Disclosure: I received the Mac & Cheese kit to facilitate my review. All opinions stated are my own. See my disclosure policy for more information.