Thoughts on Macaroni and Cheese [S. Worthen | Weblog]

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I've been thinking about the phrase "macaroni and cheese" and "macaroni cheese" lately, as you know.

The more I think about it, the more deeply convinced I am that the (primarily? exclusively?*) British phrase "macaroni cheese" reflects how French the English of Britain is. It doesn't look so on first sight, for there is nothing French about either word in it. But the construction fits the model introduced to British English by boeuf bourguinion and spaghetti bolognaise. From that perspective, the construction of [main substance][sauce] makes sense.

But I can't think of a similar explanation for "macaroni and cheese". All of the [substance] and [substance] standard constructions I can think of are pairings of more substantial things than a dish and its sauce.** Sauce is something that's with, not and, as far as I can think. I can't think of any other and examples involving sauce offhand in American English.

* Of the four people who claimed otherwise on the poll, all but one unknown have definitely lived in the UK for a substantial period of time.

** Unhelpfully, the examples coming to mind aren't American. Bangars and mash. Bubble and squeak. American more often hyphenates multi-content dishes: strawberry-rhubarb pie. Apple cranberry juice.

Mood:: food, two sides to one ocean

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There are 40 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

This is very interesting! Something I found striking when I was living in France was the omission of the "and" in companion dishes. Where the British would say "Fish and chips", the French simply order "moules frites" when they want musssels and fries. The beer seems to simply be assumed. Of course, that's not saucy...

How about "Mashed potatoes and gravy"?

American more often hyphenates multi-content dishes

Or makes up a new ™ word for it. Can we market Macracheesy™?

Biscuits and gravy?

Hey just a minor quibble on French spelling: it's "Boeuf Bourguignon".

I'm also not sure that it quite fits into the scheme that you're highlighting as well because "bourguignon" refers to the style of preparation of the dish, and "boeuf bourguignon" could be translated as "Beef Burgundian Style". Technically the same applies for "spaghetti bolognaise" though with this example "bolognaise" has actually become the actual name of a sauce, though it originally referred to spaghetti prepared in the style of Bologna, just as many other "French" sauces derive their names from places (Bearnaise, Hollandaise, Americaine etc.).

See the Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourguignon.

Also, while it's been a while since I traveled in francophone Europe, I don't recall there being a particular name for "macaroni and cheese" in either France, Belgium or Switzerland, it would just be "macaronis avec sauce fromage" or "macaronis au fromage" or something along those lines.

Now I'm thinking I need to google instant pasta boxes in French ...

Actually I also suppose that one could alsot interpret "Boeuf Bourguignon" as "Beef in Burgundy Red Wine Sauce".

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Aha - I also found a reference to "Macaroni au gratin" which makes sense for the casserole form of the dish, since almost anything you bake in a dish with cheese grated on top is called "Gratin" in French.

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That's not precisely true. There are any number of dishes that can be appropriately called "au grating' or 'gratinée' that have no cheese, but have breadcrumbs instead.

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au gratin

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Ahh interesting. I've never heard anything with breadcrumbs on top referred to as "gratin" or "au gratin" but then ... I haven't often eaten anything with breadcrumbs on top in either France, Belgium or Switzerland.

That makes it all the more appropriate for the mac and cheese with breadcrumbs on top variety though.

All of the recipes I found online for "macaroni au gratin" used bechamel as the founding sauce with cheese added. Is this generally how baked macaroni and cheese is made?

I'll have to search up some more recipes.

These naming conventions are all fascinating.

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I think, technically, 'au gratin' refers to the cooking vessel used as, of course does, say, 'boeuf en daube'. So, a gratin is something cooked in a gratin dish which is designed to go under a grill, or a salamander if we want to be esoteric. Cheese isn't required but it is very common.

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I thought so, too, but now I'm not so sure that the gratin dish isn't something that was created to get the best of foods prepared that way ...

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Actually I guess that "au gratin" and "gratinee" can just refer to anything grated, cheese or otherwise, right?

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You? Have the funniest icons evar.

:-)

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If that's me, then

eulistes made it for me. The line's from the last season of Angel.

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Oh, sure! I recognize that now. I think Harmony says it when she's offering someone a tasty cuppa blood. She made a cute receptionist. That episode where she messes up all day long is one of my favorites. The camels!

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Let's see what my British cookbook has...

Turkey Marengo
Pork Simla
Chicken cacciatore
Chicken Myers
Chicken Maryland
Kidney Turbigo
Moules marinière
Smoked fish florentine
(Reminds me - Eggs Benedict)
Pineapple Romanoff
Apple Amber (or is an "amber" a main substance??)
Potatoes Anna
Potatoes Dauphinois

Most of these are obviously in-the-style-of or in-honor-of. Are they all? It's too late at night for me to pursue this further right now.

Hmm. I still think I have a good point, even if I'm failing to provide strong evidence in favor of it!

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What is chicken Maryland? I'm dying to know the local way of preparing chicken ;)
Topped with crab, perhaps?

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No crab in this recipe. It's breaded, baked, and served with corn fritters and fried bananas. Go figure.

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wow, interesting...

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Roast beef and Yorkshire, roast lamb and mint sauce.

But - and I think this is significant - "cauliflower cheese". I rather assume the macaroni dish is seen as a (rather extreme, admittedly) variant on the older traditional dish.

Where that name came from, Lord knows. But at least it's more native!

Macaroni cheese is a dish of some antiquity. William Verral, host of the White Horse Inn in Horsham, refers to it in the early 1700s.

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But I bet cauliflower cheese predates it.

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Does Verral refer to some form of "cheesy macaroni" or to a dish specifically named "macaroni cheese"?

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If I recall correctly he refers to something like "A Dish of Maccaronee" but the recipe involves Parmesan cheese and it's finished under a salamander.

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Cauliflower cheese suffers a similar expansion in American English to "cauliflower and cheese sauce".

Well, I wouldn't consider macaroni with cheese sauce to be macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and cheese requires a cheese sauce, layers of grated cheese, and baking. It must not have anything resembling egg or custard. In the sense of macaroni cheese, my way of making it (regardless of "and") is more akin to cauliflower cheese, i.e., it has less to do with sauce than the fact that there is real cheese, melted, involved. (I suppose I should explain that cauliflower cheese in my family is steamed cauliflower with melted cheese, whereas with sauce, it would be cauliflower with cheese sauce).

So it may be less a sauce thing than a substantive thing.

Of coure, in my family, we also eat eggy toast (boiled egg on toast).

OH!!! Tuna-noodle, short for tuna-noodle casserole. But creamed peas and potatoes.

Although, by your reasoning, it's not that it's sauce, it's one of those bastardizations. In American English, we also say spaghetti bolognese, fettucini alfredo, penne puttanesca, etc. -- when it's "in the fashion of". But if it's a thing plus a type of sauce, it's 'and' or more likely, 'with', so, asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Those are things that make grammatical sense. If your theory about cheese as sauce is right, then it's one of those things where pig-ignorant usage has taken root to become commonplace -- 'cos 'macaroni in the style of cheese' makes no sense.

OTOH, the lovely American pizza pie ...

Right so "macaroni and cheese" would be a short form of "macaroni and cheese sauce" but that would leave "macaroni cheese" sort of twisting in the wind.

Heh.

I'm trying to think of more examples in french now too ... because I'm pretty sure there's usually an "avec" in between (foodname) and (sauce name) though sometimes in shorthand the "avec" drops out ...

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I think that's

owlfish's theory. In my family, you'd never find macaroni and cheese sauce -- there would have to be massive amounts of grated cheese, plus the cheese sauce. You butter the casserole (a gratin dish is too shallow), put in a layer of macaroni mixed with cheese sauce, cover with grated cheese, another layer of macaroni with cheese sauce, then more cheese, till the dish is full. Cover with grated cheese, bake till bubbly and browning on the edges. It is not a low cholesterol dish.

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For me macaroni cheese and cauliflower cheese would be a roué sauce with cheese poured over the cheese or cauliflower and possibly baked in the oven with grated cheese over or possibly served as is. I would think of that regardless of whether you called it macaroni cheese or macaroni with cheese sauce although I don't think I would often call it with cheese sauce myself.

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sorry, I mean poured over the *macaroni* or cauliflower.

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Heh, I like the idea of cheese with cheese sauce and topped with grated cheese...

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hmmm ... no, not enough cheese in it.

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Spaghetti and meatballs.

Technically meatballs are not a sauce but it is understood that it is the topping, in a tomato base, for spaghetti

The only example like "macaroni cheese" in English that is not a name taken directly from another language is "cauliflower cheese". The big question is which word modifies which - is it the macaroni or the cauliflower that is important, or is it the cheese? If it's the cheese, then there may be a mistaken premise in the original post. The sauce element is almost incidental as it is not something that is added to the dish at the end, but intrinsic to it, and a vehicle for mixing the cheese in with it; all recipes I have come across have ended up with topping the dish with grated cheese before putting it in the oven.

In any case, neither of the two examples from foreign that you mention involve, strictly speaking, a sauce; each of them is a dish cooked in the manner of a particular place - Burgundy or Bologna. So again there is a problem with the premise.

Macaroni-style cheese? Macaroni-flavored cheese? Macaroni-topped cheese? It's plausible that the cheese is the main substance, I'm just reticent to believe it.

As for your other point, yes, it's a problem. And it's a problem even when place isn't involved and the dish is eggs benedict or potatoes dauphinois. Yet without any other examples of a bulky starch or vegetable as a noun-acting-as-adjective modifying cheese, I'm struggling to think of another explanation for it other than the dismissive "quirk of English" explanation.

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Sorry, that was poorly worded - without any other examples of a bulky starch or vegetable as a noun-acting-as-adjective modifying cheese - since there are two instances of the formation.

Cheese is a protein. There's no reason why it shouldn't be treated as a bulky main player in a dish. My prejudice is towards labeled it a sauce, but it may well be a co-equal player. But the origins of the phrase still bother me.

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One could claim that the macaroni is just a pleasantly-textured, starchy substrate on which to enjoy the cheese. However, one could make similar claims for many many pasta/rice/potato/etc-based dishes, so it's hardly limited to things named that way.

The only other "something cheese" construction I can think of is "damson cheese", which involves no cheese at all and just means "cheeselike preserve made from damsons", so that doesn't really count.

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There is, for that matter, apple butter, banana butter, and all other manner of butters which are equally free from dairy.

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rather unhelpfully all I can think of is the very American "hamburger with ketchup".

In Arabic a number of dishes are named with the linking particle "bi" - which means "with", but in a more immediate sense. hummus bi-tahineh (hummus with tahineh), hummus bi-lehmeh (hummus with shaved meat on top), etc.

BUT you can't say, for example, shai/qahwa bi-haleeb (tea/coffee with milk). You say: shai/aahwa maa haleeb (maa is the "proper" word for "with").

Contemporary Arabic, especially here in the Levant, has grandfathered in a number of terms and grammatical usages from French. I've wondered before whether the use of "bi" in dish names isn't one example of Arabic a la francaise.

I went off on one about said Macaroni Cheese yesterday and my mate (who is married to an American! YAY WERE IN ENGLAND TAKIN YER STUFF!) pointed me to you.

I'm glad someone elses is thinking the same thing as me.

October