The Platonic Ideal of Macaroni and Cheese
The New York Times
Inspired by Stouffer’s mac and cheese, in the red box from the freezer aisle, this homemade version delivers the same molten creaminess.
For those nostalgic enough to look into them, old restaurant menus, like telescopes, can reveal distant worlds.
A Stouffer’s restaurant menu dated Friday, July 5, 1955, for instance, lists a macaroni and cheese dinner plate for a dollar, among other entrees like chicken fricassee, broiled whitefish and breaded pork steak with apple sauce. The mac and cheese came with a trio of sides: spinach soufflé, julienne carrots and a tossed green salad. If a drink was in order, one could wash all of that down with a claret cobbler, a cocktail of red wine, fresh fruit and sugar, or maybe with a Bamboo, which mixes sherry and vermouth — both for 55 cents.
This is the same Stouffer’s that has become best known for frozen dinners sold in a distinctive red box. The company began as a family business in the early 1900s, operating a small dairy stand in Cleveland before expanding into restaurants, hotels and freezer-aisle products. Vernon Bigelow Stouffer inherited the business and turned it into an American food empire.
