My Grandmother Howard’s Mac & Cheese Is Worth Fighting Over (Thanks to This Forgotten Pantry Ingredient!)

My grandmother lived to be 99 years old. She passed away peacefully just a few months before her 100th birthday. She was an incredible, resilient woman who always maintained a positive attitude. She was our hero and lived life to the fullest every day. There are a lot of qualities Grandmother was known for, but one of her most iconic traits was her ability to cook. 

When I was a kid, I loved spending time with her in the kitchen where I learned her legendary recipes and iconic techniques. Her cupboards were filled with old deli containers that she used for storage, as most did who lived through the Great Depression, and her pantry was stocked with canned goods including one very special staple in her kitchen — canned evaporated milk. Her fridge was always, I mean always, stocked with her famous chicken salad, and there wasn’t a single special dinner, including holidays, that didn’t include her legendary mac and cheese. My most prized possession of hers that I received after her passing was her collection of recipes, and when I say collection, I mean thousands upon thousands of recipes, including this mac and cheese.  

While you can find a similar baked mac and cheese across the internet, no other mac and cheese rivals hers. I might be biased, but the evaporated milk is truly what makes her dish hers. If you’re not into canned evaporated milk, I get it. You can use whole milk like in this Homemade Mac and Cheese to achieve a similar taste and texture. 

1. Prepare a 9×13 casserole dish with oil, butter, or cooking spray (whichever you prefer).  
2. Cook and drain 1 box of elbow macaroni pasta. 
3. Pour cooked and drained macaroni into the prepared casserole dish. 
4. Top with an entire block of shredded cheddar cheese. 
5. Cut up 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter into pats and place on top. 
6. Pour one tall can of evaporated milk into the dish and stir all the ingredients together. 
7. Bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees.