Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

Great baked macaroni and cheese is just great mac—tender pasta coated in a thick, creamy cheese sauce—bubbling in a baking pan beneath a blanket of crunchy, golden-brown breadcrumbs.But all too often that isn’t the case. Most baked mac and cheeses are stodgy and gluey, with the pasta hammered beyond belief. It’s a shame, because it doesn’t have to be this way.Our version solves all those issues. Using everything we’ve learned about <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/melty-cheese-parametric-analysis">melting salts</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/cheddar-cheese-sauce">cheese sauce</a> science, we’ve made a super-smooth sauce packed with sharp cheddar flavor that coats and clings to macaroni like a dream. And by adjusting the cook times on the pasta and bumping up the ratio of sauce to elbows to account for how much liquid they can absorb, we ensure that every spoonful is creamy, gooey, and never stodgy.

Ultra-Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese