How mac ’n’ cheese was baked into American culture

By Josie Delap

Some partnerships embody America: peanut butter and jelly; apple pie and vanilla ice cream; pumpkin spice and just about anything. Macaroni cheese is another such combination. It typifies two striking trends in American cuisine: the joyful assimilation of dishes from other countries and the industrialisation of food to maximise convenience and profit.

Some credit hungry and resourceful 19th-century Swiss shepherds with the invention of macaroni cheese. Dry pasta is both light and long-lasting – ideal to schlep around the Alps – and herdsmen could make their own cheese. Others go further back to 14th-century Italy, where a tome entitled “Liber de Coquina” (“Book of Cooking” – nothing if not to the point) featured a dish called “makerouns” that involved pastry dough, cheese and butter.