Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Mac and cheese has been one of my favorite foods since I was five years old. In fact, it was all my parents could get me to eat for a solid year. As I got older, I realized that Kraft wasn’t the only macaroni and cheese brand out there — quite the bombshell for seven-year-old me. The first time I tried Velveeta as a kid, it rocked my world. Now as an adult, I’ve made it my life’s mission to sample any type of mac and cheese I can get my hands on. I’ve become a mac and cheese connoisseur, and I always love paying a visit back to my roots and cooking up a pot of classic stovetop mac and cheese. But not every mac and cheese is created equal. And some brands are not as tasty as I remember them being when I was a kid. Read more: How to Make Restaurant Quality Mac and Cheese in 10 MinutesTo see just how much my taste buds have changed, I visited my local Walmart, picked up nine of the most popular stovetop mac and cheese brands I could find on the shelf, cooked them up and ranked them. Here’s what I found.The best stovetop mac and cheese Sarah Drolet / CNET Not to be confused with the popular restaurant chain, Cracker Barrel is a brand of cheese you can find in the grocery store, but it also makes a boxed macaroni and cheese product. This was my first time trying the brand’s boxed mac and cheese, and it has easily become my new favorite stovetop mac and cheese. The cheese flavor was extremely rich (just the way I like it) and the creaminess was on point. The pasta wasn’t drowning in a puddle of yellow liquid at the bottom of the pot, but it was never at risk of drying out either. It was perfect. The color of the finished product came out a nice golden yellow, which is the color I prefer for my mac and cheese. It was also incredibly easy to make – just boil some water, cook the pasta, drain it and dump in the cheese sauce. You won’t need to add any milk or butter. Cracker Barrel’s mac and cheese is the most expensive on this list, however, costing more than $3.50 per box. This might not sound like a lot, but considering most mac-and-cheese brands cost less than $2 (and one cost less than 50 cents), this is a premium price tag. Sarah Drolet / CNET Cracker Barrel mac and cheese might be my new favorite, but Velveeta has always had a special place in my heart. Velveeta was a huge part of my childhood. For the sake of making an objective ranking, I attempted to put my biases aside. But when all was said and done, Velveeta still ended up coming out near the top of the list. And while I still found Cracker Barrel to be the better mac and cheese, I love Velveeta for all the same reasons. It’s extremely rich and creamy (with emphasis on the creamy part), and it has that gorgeous golden shine that I love to see on my noodles. Velveeta is also super-easy to make. Just like Cracker Barrel, it uses cheese sauce versus cheese powder, so you won’t need to worry about adding any milk or butter. And trust me, you won’t need it — it’s plenty creamy and flavorful just the way it is. Note that Velveeta is also pretty pricey, at least for mac and cheese. Sarah Drolet / CNET As a brand that literally makes cheese, I had high expectations for Cabot’s boxed macaroni and cheese. And I have to say, I’m not disappointed. The cheese flavor was rich and powerful, but not excessively overbearing. The creaminess was spot on too. Cabot’s mac and cheese only calls for two tablespoons of milk versus the quarter-cup of milk that most other box mac and cheese brands call for. Using less milk means you won’t have to worry about drowning your noodles, while still keeping things creamy. It’s a balance. The texture of the pasta was great as well — not too hard but not too chewy either. I also very much prefer the tiny shells that Cabot uses versus the traditional elbow noodles of other mac and cheese. Sarah Drolet / CNET I wasn’t the biggest fan of Annie’s on my first bite. It’s a hot take, I know. But after a few more spoonfuls, I started coming around to the taste. Annie’s tastes different from any other stovetop mac and cheese I’ve had before. Instead of going for a rich and bold cheesy flavor that most other brands do, Annie’s flavors are more subtle. The cheese is still there, but it’s not as in your face as Cabot or Velveeta. As someone who prefers the “in your face” approach, I didn’t really care for Annie’s at first. However, the subtle flavors started to grow on me the more I ate. I also loved the texture of the pasta. It’s soft and easy to chew, but not too chewy. The recipe on the box also calls for less milk, which is always a plus. Sarah Drolet / CNET I grew up on Kraft mac and cheese. In fact, Kraft is what made me fall in love with mac and cheese in the first place. Five-year-old me was obsessed from the very first bite, so it pains me a little to have to rank Kraft so low here. But I said I would set my biases aside for this. The truth is, Kraft’s macaroni and cheese is just average (there, I said it). It’s not a bad mac and cheese by any means, but it’s nowhere close to being your best option either. The cheese flavor isn’t as cheesy as I remember. For this ranking, I went with the standard original flavor box. But I know Kraft’s other flavors can provide a better experience in the cheesiness department. The mac and cheese was creamy, but also a bit liquid. The instructions on the box call for one-quarter-cup of milk, which is just way too much in my opinion. The finished product was visually appealing, and the texture was fine — nothing special. Overall, a very standard mac and cheese. Sarah Drolet / CNET This is essentially Rice A Roni’s attempt at a mac and cheese, and it’s definitely not my favorite. Much like Kraft, it’s not bad, but it’s probably not a mac and cheese that I would buy again. There was just something about the flavoring of the cheese that I really didn’t care for. Again, it didn’t taste bad — just odd. Maybe it was the aftertaste. The cheese flavor was definitely rich though, which is something I can appreciate. Mac A Roni came out creamy enough, but much like other lower ranking mac and cheese on this list, it was a bit liquidy. The instructions say to add a quarter-cup of milk, but I really don’t think you need that much. Things start to get kind of runny when you add that much milk. Sarah Drolet / CNET Just like with Mac A Roni, the flavors in Goodles were rich, but I just didn’t care for the taste. The mac and cheese was creamy, but it also came out more runny than the brands appearing higher on this list. Again, too much milk will start to drown the pasta.The color of Goodles is more orange than yellow, which I’m not a fan of. But that’s really just personal preference. I also felt like the pasta was a bit chewy. However, all that aside, Goodles is packed with protein. For context, a box of regular Kraft macaroni and cheese has 10 grams of protein, while a box of Goodles has 14 grams. So if consuming protein is your no. 1 priority in a mac and cheese, Goodles won’t let you down there. Sarah Drolet / CNET Yes, I know this is just Walmart’s private label macaroni and cheese. But since I bought all the boxes of mac and cheese for this ranking at my local Walmart, I figured I’d give Great Value mac and cheese a try, too. Unfortunately, I really didn’t like this one. The pasta was very chewy, the flavors didn’t really pop, and there was way too much cheesy liquid at the bottom of the pot. If you’re going to make this mac and cheese, I highly recommend using less milk than what the instructions call for.The cheese packet that came in the box was also very small. It was so small that it got lost among the pasta at the bottom of the box. For a second, I actually thought the cheese packet just didn’t make it into the box. It’s a nitpick, but just make sure you’re extra careful when pouring the pasta into the pan. You don’t want your cheese packet landing in a pot of boiling water.On the bright side, however, Great Value mac and cheese is extremely cheap. You can find it on the shelf at your Walmart for less than 50 cents. But if there’s room in your budget, you’re much better off getting a different brand. Sarah Drolet / CNET I like Cheetos, and I like mac and cheese. So with that simple logic, this should be pretty delicious, right? Well, not quite. Turns out, Cheeto dust does not belong in mac and cheese. The flavor was terrible, and the overpowering smell of Cheetos and the bright orange color of the pasta did not help. Honestly, this was tough to eat. But if you really love Cheetos, and I mean really love Cheetos, then you might enjoy this.Cheetos did manage to get a few things right. The texture of the spiral-shaped noodles was fine and it was decently creamy. There wasn’t a giant puddle of cheese-liquid at the bottom of the pot. Despite that, I think I can live without eating this mac and cheese ever again.
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What you’ll need to make stovetop mac and cheese
From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated.
Mac and cheese is probably one of the simplest things you’ll ever make on a stovetop, and it shouldn’t take longer than 15 to 20 minutes. You’ll really only need a few things: a pot, a strainer, a trusty stirring spoon, milk and butter. The type of milk and butter you use is up to personal preference. If you want to eliminate some fat from the recipe, then I’d use low fat milk and less butter. Or you could just not use butter altogether (or maybe try a non-dairy alternative or an oil). I won’t tell anyone. This is all you’ll need to whip up the best stovetop mac and cheese. Sarah Drolet / CNETWhat I recommend when making stovetop mac and cheeseFor the sake of this list, I followed the instructions on every box word-for-word and ingredient-for-ingredient. But you don’t have to. In fact, there are a few things I’d change. Use less butterMost of the boxed mac and cheese I made for this list called for a quarter-cup of milk and 4 tablespoons of butter. So first of all, yikes. That’s a lot of butter. These are (roughly) 6 to 7 ounce boxes. I promise you do not need that much butter. Personally, I use 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter when I make mac and cheese, and that’s plenty. To be honest, you don’t even really need to add butter if you don’t want to. It’s there to add a little extra flavor and help make the pasta a bit creamier.Don’t use too much milkWhat you really need to make sure you add is milk. Adding milk is necessary to help stir in the cheese powder and keep the pasta from drying out too quickly. Most of these brands called for a quarter-cup of milk — that’s way too much. If you add that much milk, you risk drowning the pasta in a puddle of cheese water at the bottom of the pot. Your mac and cheese won’t be creamy, it’ll just be runny. Instead, I’d recommend just adding two tablespoons of milk. And if you feel like your pasta is too dry, add another tablespoon. You can always start with less and add more as you mix and stir, getting it to your preferred consistency. Using too much milk will make your mac and cheese runny. Sarah Drolet / CNETHow I scored the best stovetop mac and cheeseThese rankings are based on my personal testing and tastes. Your tastebuds are likely very different from mine. A mac and cheese that I absolutely despise might be your all-time favorite, and that’s perfectly fine. Go ahead — try the Cheetos one at least once.I scored each mac and cheese on these qualities: Overall flavor and richness of the cheeseCreaminessVisual appealTextureEach mac and cheese receives a 1-to-10 score for each of the listed categories. After each category is scored, we total the numbers for the final score and rank them accordingly. I attempted to make each type of mac and cheese exactly the way it was intended to be made, meaning I followed all of the instructions on the box. If the box says to add one-quarter-cup of milk, I add it. If the box says to cook the pasta for 10 minutes, then so be it. You may not want to follow the directions exactly as written. Do what you find works best for your preferences and your kitchen skills. It’s beautiful (and delicious). Sarah Drolet / CNET
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