Annie of Annie's Mac and Cheese
sfgate.com
sfgate.com
It’s a nice profile, but I would really love to read more about how she took such a simple idea (replacing neon orange cheddar powder with white on two different product lines) and quickly developed them into massive businesses and brands. She says in the article that she didn’t like business, but one gets the impression that she was exceptionally good at it.
I can sympathize with her; "business" can mean a lot of things, including endless politicking, insincere communication, misplaced priorities, etc. And as you grow in importance you get lots more inbound attention (mostly undesirable), more decisions to make, and so on. Being a figurehead before peacing out completely was a good move.
Every.single.time I write technical documentation, everyone tells me how wonderful it is. But I always feel like it took me forever to write, and the whole thing felt like a horrible, horrible chore; a total bore-fest. Later I read it back and I'm like: "meh, this is so dry and boring!".
But of course, I wasn't writing prose - I was writing a reference document, so I suppose it's not meant to be anything but boring. And OK, while writing it I might of wished I was grating my face instead - but numerous people over a period of decades have told me how good I am at it, so I suppose I must be, even though I hate it.
These days, anyone who tried to make a product by purchasing the core ingredients from two major food suppliers would find their offering cloned within days of any kind of traction. Consider the hoverboard phenomenon, which is much more complex, and still didn't make it a year before there were dozens of identical products out of China.
If you're trying to compete in such a saturated segment, you have the same competitive targeting as has always existed since consumer goods became a mainstream thing. You can try to build a brand of some manner, which provides a self-constructed moat against competition (this is what Smartfood represented). You can lower your prices under everyone else and give up margin, in which case you compete through executing better than everyone else (being able to survive on 3%-5% profit margins). You can leverage a network you possess, human connections, to gain an advantage over your competition in one of the industry tiers (manufacturing, marketing, distribution, etc). You can cheat, bribe, get your competition put out of business (Preston Tucker was attacked that way; and it's common throughout most of the world). You can use a resource advantage, for example capital - you can out-spend the competition (economies of scale; locking up manufacturing (Apple does this); advertising, which ties to brand building), or sue them out of existence if they're far weaker (Microsoft was almost bankrupted early in its existence with this tactic).
Not much has actually changed structurally in a century about how all of these things work.
Maybe. I don't know enough about the market for auto makers in old Detroit. But my suspicion is that no matter how fast they were, they were nowhere near as fast as we see microbrands pop up today. Pretty much any consumer manufactured good you care to search for on Amazon has not just one, but multiple weird micro-brands jostling for superior ranking. Brands form, rise and fall within a year or two. Maybe it has happened in the past, but it's definitely more hectic than any period in my lifetime.
I agree with everything in your second paragraph, but I think you're largely just stating the difficulty of business in a world where "making the product" is not the principal challenge. If anyone can contract manufacture a widget on spec and have it shipped from China for a few tens of thousands of dollars, then most people can do that part, and the game boils down to how efficiently you can market your product to a mass audience and poke your head above the crowd. This basically just boils down to "get attention by any means necessary" (which explains a lot about the internet and media today, and why you see so many celebrities-turned-investors achieving success. If you're already famous and rich, the job is 80% done.)
For the particular example of macaroni and cheese, I'm still amazed that this lady had enough time to build a brand via the sorts of shoe-leather techniques she used. I guarantee that if you tried this today, multiple opportunistic "hustlers" would clone your product and have equally well-developed branding before you had it in a dozen stores.
I consider macaroni cheese as a "comfort food" - one of those things that's a perfect ratio of carbs and fat. But it's a very easy thing to make, even for a novice, in 20 minutes when you're taking your time. I remember my mother teaching me how to make it before going to university, the very first thing I'd ever cooked - I remember thinking, "wow, is that it?!".
And it's the sort of thing that is always going to be at least 2x better if you make it yourself, because you use actual cheese (sounds so weird saying that as a Brit!), as mature as you like, and as much as you like.
I'm very obviously not the target market now, but even as a cash and time-strapped student a lifetime ago, whose mum had tought him cooking basics just few months previously, I still don't get how someone could make a fortune out of this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am not a mac & cheese fan, much less an instant mac & cheese fan, but it's not at all surprising to me that convenience foods exist. And for what it's worth, it's much more popular in Canada than the US.
The box stuff is easier because it's less steps, but doesn't take any less time to prepare.
Just using the same Kraft Dinner technique, except using real cheese cubed instead of the orange powder, is the best tasting and easiest method.
In the states most recipes will have you finish in a casserole dish with bread crumbs, but we find it actually tastes better if you skip that step, for whatever reason.
If anybody has suggestions on other cheeses to add/substitute in this mix I’m all ears!
I'd argue you don't need salt if you salt the pasta water enough.
This is the episode where they make his mac and cheese recipe:
While the noodles are draining you take some of the noodle water, some milk, and some cheese and mix it together in the still warm pot over the lowest heat setting on your stove top?
But seriously what were you doing those 15 minutes? You could have your cheese sauce ready to go and put the noodles almost directly into it.
I think to answer the op's question, the reason boxed mac & cheese is so popular is two part. American's don't have the time or energy to prepare a meal, and they don't know how to.
Making a single dish is easy, making multiple dishes for a meal is tricky when you're not familiar with the kitchen. Americans don't cook anymore.
As someone who occasionally ate mac 'n cheese and top ramen in college, I think it partly comes down to what tools and ingredients are available to you. I did not have access to a stove/pots/pans/colander. I had access to a shared microwave that was in the lounge in my dorm. So making my own mac 'n cheese was not possible (never mind the fact that we didn't have ready access to ingredients, and that cheese would go bad or be stolen from the fridge).
As an adult, I enjoy making mac 'n cheese for my kids, using a yogurt-based recipe and incorporating riced cauliflower to make it somewhat less unhealthy. But college-student-me didn't have access to the ingredients/tools to make that possible.
I had a colander and a grater, which people probably borrowed. We bought a couple of utensils throughout the year, like a large roasting tin for Christmas Dinner. I bought scales for baking. The university gave international students a pan and other basic stuff.
There was a fancy supermarket nearby (though they had the cheapest spirits), a normal one about 15 minutes walk away, and a cheaper one 10 minutes beyond that. I usually went to the normal one.
Cooking together was great. Sharing that kitchen were people from England, Wales, Hong Kong, Jamaica, China, Italy. Friends who came by added Japan, Germany, France, Thailand.
The Welsh guy and his boyfriend were most organised, and about once a month got everyone who wanted to to help cook (or at least clean) for ~10-15. Normally, ~4 of us cooked in alternating pairs for the other 2.
Macaroni cheese would have been a bit disappointing for the lack of vegetables.
If I only had a few minutes and was eating myself, I'd prefer to use those 2 minute ramen things.
All of this seems fairly normal to me. The large group meals were only possible in 1st year with the large kitchen, but everything else continued in later years, renting houses or apartments.
Speak for yourself (or maybe there's data on this that you can cite). I personally very much enjoy cooking and prepare nearly all of my meals from scratch. I've seen friends I never would have imagined cooking pick it up as a hobby they enjoy during the pandemic. There are actually a few countries where eating out is more common: Spain and Canada, according to this data [1].
[1] https://www.prestigeonline.com/my/wine-dine/dining/which-cou...
One thing this thread has taught me is that what I would consider mac & cheese, which involves baking the cooked macaroni with cheese and roux, is not what other people are doing.
I now see why 20 minutes for prep can work, though I’m not sure I would be much more interested in eating that.
That type is fancy and reserved for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I guess people have different tastes.
That being said, a lot of restaurants will cover the macaroni and cheese in breadcrumbs and place it under the broiler for couple minutes, that is great and nothing at all like baked macaroni and cheese, it creates a nice crust and still preserves the creamy, tasty qualities of the product.
Really depends on the heat output of your burner (for the get it boiling part); most elbow macaroni is, IIRC, 7-10 minutes cook time, draining takes seconds, and most of the sauce can be done while the noodles are cooking. 20 minutes total is perfectly reasonable.
OTOH, where the box saves you is in how busy you are, since it doesn't take multitasking, and cleanup, since it's one-pot, while sauce and noodles in parallel takes two.
Anyway, without a kettle I guess it's still doable around the 20m mark, as long as you have a gas or induction hob, and while the pasta is cooking you grate the cheese and make the sauce.
And on the sauce, I make a roux, add full-fat milk, add the cheese and season - easy. If you want to get fancy, chopped onions and chunks of pre-cooked (or tinned) ham mixes things up.
I actually have a bit of a hack when I'm in a major rush - I'll put half the water I need in the electric kettle, and half on the stovetop.
We do have electric kettles, although I take it they don’t heat as fast as yours due to the difference in power supply.
That said... I’ve never seen one (in the UK) big enough to heat enough water to properly boil pasta. They’re like one quart or 1L at the most...?
However, nothing beats the incredibly addictive, comforting taste of boxed mac and cheese - yes I crave that artificial taste, it's incredible. Plus you can make it with ingredients most people have on hand literally 24/7 - only butter and milk, you don't have to plan ahead and I only need to dirty a single pan.
Plus it's CHEAP, like, really, really cheap.
Beyond that, boxed mac and cheese is more popular in Canada (where they call it "KD" - short for "Kraft Dinner") than the US - it's not exactly "har, har, americans dumb."
Are you saying you still need butter and milk to make it?
In which case, the real thing only requires having cheese (which keeps a fairly long time), flour and pasta (both keep indefinitely) in addition.
I very rarely have enough cheese in my house for mac and cheese, especially the right kind of cheese. If I want to make it from scratch I have to plan ahead. However, I always, always, always have butter and (oat) milk in the house though, 24/7, so boxed mac and cheese is always an option.
I still strongly prefer the taste of boxed, it's simply amazing in an indescribable way.
Made it for my wife, she prefers KD.
We been dabbling from scratch, much better results
Besides Mac & Cheese, they make everything from frozen dinners, to $3.99 soups. She is opening up restaurants too.
Her brilliance is making the public believe they are eating slightly better than the rest of us, which is probably true? It’s to bad the bar is so low.
“Natural, non-gmo, healthy, etc.”. Oh yea, the packaging is brilliant too.
If you are a vegetarian, buying her foods is an easy choice.
That said, most of the food seems slightly better than the brand names products in terms of healthy food.
The brilliance of her product is basically marketing. I was glad when my sister said, “I am eating to many of her frozen dinners. I’m beginning to think they are not good for me?”
I didn’t say anything. (Oh yea, if you live with anyone on a strict vegetarian diet, don’t say anything. Trust me.). I was thinking, the secret to her food is that mysterious cheese. You could put it on anything, and it would taste palatable, but not at her price point for myself.
My food philosophy is simple: I use the most basic ingredients as is practical, buy the freshest stuff I can, and cook nearly everything at home.
I can be pretty confident about what's in my food, because odds are I put it there. We save a ton of money on eating out, and I think it builds better friendships when you can invite people over for a meal you cooked.
This comes at a time cost, but with practice, you get to the point where you can cook amazing food pretty quickly. Not as fast as an instant meal, but it'll taste ten times better, and cost a quarter as much.
Also, I've found I don't really like most processed food anymore after eating like this. Some stuff is okay -- potato chips are way easier to buy off-the-shelf -- but I honestly start to feel sick if I eat McDonalds, or drink a Coke, and I pretty much grew up on both of those.
I know this isn't accessible to everybody -- if you're working two jobs and on the weekends, there's no way you've got time to cook -- but if you have the time, I'd say it's worth it.
[1]: “Although I don’t have any contact with the folks at General Mills, I have learned that they are committed to converting one million acres of conventional, degraded agricultural land to sustainable, no-till acreage within the next decade. I am hopeful that they will quickly learn that crop yield is greater with no-till practices (plus countless other benefits) and that their conversion timeline will be accelerated.”
[2]: “I do believe that General Mills gets it. There’s no denying that Annie’s is a special brand, and they know it would be detrimental not to keep the mission and culture intact.”
Annie’s story reminds me of Peet’s, whose founder [3] bowed out of the business after a decade or so but inspired two of the largest coffee chains in America today.
I've done that too, with cheese powder from Amazon. It does seem incrementally better. If there's a "secret ingredient" to macaroni & cheese, it's just the cheese powder which you can readily buy by the pound, and then use for other things. Like putting it on your popcorn (add onion powder to really round it out).
The nice thing is that you end up with a lot more versatility when your cheese powder isn't confined to a Mac&Cheese container. I also like to use it as part of cheese sauces for broccoli and such. It's not a staple in my kitchen, but I probably manage to go through a pound in about 6-9 months, and it still generally tastes good even at the end.
I have already proved that US Kit Kats (made by Reese/Hershey) have almost no chocolate smell compared to Euro Kit Kats (made by Nestlé) which have a rich cocoa aroma.
It's sort of like the loudness trick for headphones.
Even for sweet foods, adding a pinch of salt is sometimes an insane flavor-enhancer. It doesn't just work on caramel.
Sodium citrate for example helps your cheese melt creamily.
The powder likely contains the right balance of additions that give you a great creamy mac & cheese.
A good reference: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/11/sodium-citrate-b...
Eh, is this a US thing? Here in the UK, I just use cheddar - any brand, any maturity you fancy, and it melts just fine.
I spent several months in the US around 2005, and I do recall the cheese was pretty terrible - bland, with an odd, plasticy texture.
Aw, dude, you're supposed to remove the individual plastic wrap from the cheese before serving!
In Britain they label it "singles" or "slices" or something equally meaningless.
They do seem able to use "cheese" when English isn't a national language, though they then can't use the local word for cheese.
They are called "pasteurized process cheese food" or "pasteurized prepared cheese product" depending on their ingredients. There are pretty specific FDA regulations on cheese naming that are presumably similar to the equivalents in the EU: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFR...
Another Serious Eats reference. https://aht.seriouseats.com/2011/07/the-burger-lab-how-to-ma...
May as well ask, why not curdle the cheese yourself?
Why buy yogurt when you can make it yourself?
Why buy salad dressing when you can make it yourself?
Why buy soy sauce when you can make it yourself?
Why buy hot sauce when you can make it yourself?
Why buy canned food when you could can it yourself?
Why buy soy milk when you can make it yourself?
Why buy salsa when you can make it yourself?
Why buy mayonnaise when you can make it yourself?
Why buy tomato sauce when you can make it yourself?
Why buy soup mix when you can make it yourself?
Etc.
It's a matter of personal taste, cost, convenience, time, resources, skill level, shelf life, day-to-day diet, etc.
Aside: A roux is the basis of many 'creamy' sauces. Learning the skill of roux making is very much worth your time as a home cook.
If you still can't manage to get it down, try xantham gum instead. Mix it in with some oil first, then add your liquids. Again, you'll need to experiment with hydration ratios, but it's a much easier and faster method that will also work for cold dishes. It's powerful stuff, maybe a teaspoon per liter of water will thicken quite a bit.
And unless you're absolutely blasting the heat, in which case most food behaves the same, there's no way for a roux to go from undercooked to burnt in a few seconds. It can take an hour to make a dark roux for gumbo.
Cheese powder, on the other hand, is non-perishable so it can always be kept on hand. It's also MUCH cheaper.
Also, a sibling reply mentions roux. I haven't got that option myself because I'm allergic to wheat, so I'm personally stuck with "alternatives" regardless.
I think it's fine. Shrug
Of course, the taste changes if you use a different type of pasta, and the macaroni that comes in the box is significantly longer/straighter than the elbows you can buy in the store.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semester_at_Sea
"During the semester the ship circumnavigates the globe"...
Good times.
I'd still rather eat Annie's than Kraft.
The article reads like this product was at least at one time just pasta, milk, butter, and actual cheese (albeit all dried/powdered).
Organic Pasta (Organic Wheat Flour), Whey, Cultured Cream, Nonfat Milk, Salt, Butter (Pasteurized Cream, Salt), Dried Cheddar Cheese (Cultured Pasteurized Milk, Salt, Non-Animal Enzymes), Corn Starch, Citric Acid, Annatto Extract (For Color), Lactic Acid, Sunflower Lecithin, Sodium Phosphate, Silicon Dioxide (For Anticaking).
None of this bothers me, but the declaration "No artificial flavors, synthetic colors, or synthetic preservatives" seems out of place with those last six ingredients. It's technically true, but that's a context where you sorta want more than merely "technically true".
I don't think any of them are harmful... but then, neither are the artificial and synthetic versions they're replacing. They don't strike me as all that different from the Kraft ones:
enriched macaroni (wheat flour, durum flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate [iron], thiamin mononitrate [vitamin b1], riboflavin [vitamin b2], folic acid); cheese sauce mix (whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, salt, sodium triphosphate, contains less than 2% of citric acid, lactic acid, sodium phosphate, calcium phosphate, with paprika, turmeric, and annatto added for color, enzymes, cheese culture).
I do prefer organic animal ingredients, in the hopes that the animals themselves are treated slightly better if they have to avoid diseases rather than be given antibiotics. Unfortunately, I lack the resources to verify that (which is why I have cut way back on my animal product consumption).
The actual meaning of 'organic' when it comes to crops:
> Produce can be called organic if it’s certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest. Prohibited substances include most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In instances when a grower has to use a synthetic substance to achieve a specific purpose, the substance must first be approved according to criteria that examine its effects on human health and the environment (see other considerations in “Organic 101: Allowed and Prohibited Substances”).
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-...
It's probably healthier for you, in that there's less chance of trace chemicals that might have one effect or another that won't be understood or documented for decades. It's almost certainly healthier for the planet, as it requires a growing process that's more holistic than just regularly spraying down fields with various fertilizers and pesticides.
that isn't true, see below
>in that there's less chance of trace chemicals that might have one effect or another that won't be understood or documented for decades
You often trade a trace chemical that has been well studied and found mostly harmless for a much higher concentration of some other chemical that is known as somewhat toxic but has been used for hundreds of years.
> It's almost certainly healthier for the planet, as it requires a growing process that's more holistic than just regularly spraying down fields with various fertilizers and pesticides.
It is worse for the planet in other ways. You can't use chemicals to destroy weeds, so instead you plow which destroys soil microbes, and the tractor pulling the plow emits for more CO2 than the whole process of making and applying the chemical.
Remember, organic processes that research shows are better are adopted by non-organic farmers. The opposite is not allowed.
My problem here is largely with the industrializing of the "organic" label. The things that you're really hoping for -- crop rotation, co-planting, mulching, no-till, etc -- don't really scale well. The organic farms look a lot like conventional farms, enormous monocultures. The names on the labels are just different.
I'm presenting the negative case here, just to point out that I'm really not certain. I'm a big supporter of what JI Rodale was doing when he popularized the term "organic", but that's not what you get in the grocery store. I have hopes that the grocery store is in fact ultimately a little better for the planet, but I wish I could be more certain.
[0] https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=9874504b6f1...
edit: This, of course, only applies to the USDA organic program. Products produced elsewhere may have different rules.
Spread ammonium based fertilizer, you aren't organic.
Spread manure from cattle raised on crops grown using ammonium based fertilizer, you are good to go.
[0] https://www.annies.com/product/organic-classic-cheddar-mac-c...
(Here's one, for example: https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/08/news/companies/kraft-mac-an...)
I had spoken to some flavor manufacturers about a decade ago, and they say that the shift to "natural" flavors had been in the works for some time. Only very bottom-of-the-line products were still using artificial flavors. (They're very down on this since they don't think it makes any difference aside from costing more, and they're probably right. But consumers seem to like it better.)
It bothers me that consumers like making changes that don't really matter, but don't want to make hard changes that do matter (like the fact that neither one of these products contains a significant amount of nutritive value other than calories). That would mean eating a lot less macaroni and cheese.
At some point (mid-80s) my mother decided we would switch from Kraft to the peanut butter you would get in bulk at these stores. So yes, I remember them. :)
That is true if one is speaking about the basic categories like "fats/carbs/sugars" etc., but the concern is really about certain additives in processed foods. When ingesting a carcinogen, sure it is repeated exposure that raises one’s odds of developing cancer, but all it might really take is just a single time. That is why additives are sometimes banned from country to country: because there might not even be a "reasonable amount" greater than zero.
e.g.
> “Beating obesity will take action by all of us, based on one simple common-sense fact: All calories count, no matter where they come from, including Coca-Cola and everything else with calories,” the female announcer said. “And if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you’ll gain weight.”
There's obviously no difference between the foods and everything that compromises us is just due to personal failure.
I drink less than one coke a month. I get the sugar kind, because I prefer the mouth feel, but even with corn syrup, there is just no way this has any negative health consequences for me.
This is part of a very general problem, one without obvious solutions: anything which feels good, or is fun, will have people who harm themselves by using it too much.
Mitigating this (it can't be solved) is a boring, slow, social process. Soda vending machines probably shouldn't be in schools. Maybe fast food restaurants should stop bundling a soda for basically-free? But it is basically free, pennies per cup, and I'm wary of anything which forces a huge corporation to not pass that on to the consumer. I've seen no evidence that soda taxes are effective, it strikes me as just a regressive tax.
So we're left with the long slog of convincing people that it's a bad idea to drink a soda with every meal. Which appears to be working... slowly.
When I gain excess weight, it's bread. And not the low-status peasant bread with dough conditioners and added sugar: no I get the fancy sourdough bread, or bagels, and just eat more of it than I really should. There is only one person who can prevent this, and he does my grocery shopping.
They are bluffing and they know that.
Maybe it’s organic or something which makes people like it. Kind of the same with with Amy’s frozen meals. They are all so bland. I’ve never found one I liked more than the “regular” frozen brands, which says a lot as none of those are really very good.
This was an important point in this article for me. Trademarks (as well as copyrights) are abstractions that were arbitrarily invented (and then enforced via law) that few seem to question. This is just the way things are done.
The idea that Annie can start a brand called Annie's, following Annie's (in the traditional sense, not Annie's(r)) principles and procedures, and then sell that brand to some other organization that has nothing to do with Annie, that is still sold and marketed as "Annie's(r)", seems a little bit crazy and perhaps wrong to me.
If you remove the "(r)", putting the term "Annie's" on the box is now factually incorrect: it's not Annie doing it, and it's not Annie's. It's General Mills'. It is, in effect, a lie, even though under trademark and corporate law, everything is A-OK.
There is a bug in this system somewhere.
She seems quite nice and business savvy -- built a good brand, then stepped away when it got bigger than she wanted to manage so she can focus on the things she really wants to do. And she's smart enough to not bad-mouth the new owners, when asked about how she thinks about General Mills.
That was such an incredibly disappointing thing (how they have dangerous compounds for children in Annies) that I learned as I have been feeding both my 1&3 year old Annies mac and cheese. I had such high expectations on Annie given its origins and stand against toxicity. (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/business/annies-mac-chees...)
I get tired of the tales of the rapacious and deplorable behavior of so many people in business, so it's refreshing to hear stories like this.
We have a subscription to a 12-pack of mac n cheese; it is a reliable meal for our kid, who would subsist soley on them if we let him.
I think there's an entirely different story to be written about how many of the organic companies from a different era have become simply brands of a few mega food corps; how one coop / organic food store looks like another one in its homogeneity. That worries me a lot. The food system is disturbingly opaque: having worked in it, it's opaque in ways that are slightly variant from the conventional organic stores' narrative, but I find equally, if not perhaps more disturbing.
As I age I find straight mac and cheese a bit too heavy these days. The peppers compliment and add to the flavour, while lightening the carb/fat hit a bit.
The current product lineup is pretty appalling. There's one (1) product, but in various different stages of pre-preparation.
From there you can add chicken and fresh herbs.
If you have a modern electric pressure cooker these kind of things are super simple to make, and with glass tupperware you can store and eat it over the next several days.
Or am I missing something - are these branded products somehow cheaper than these recipes?
Note: I am from Ukraine.
Also, cost probably is a factor. Even Annie's, which is more of a "premium" brand, can be had for around 1$ US per box, which could feed two people or so as part of a meal.
A meal there is about twice as expensive as a traditional meal at a traditional restaurant.
> Note: I am from Ukraine.
You don't need to monitor the progress of boiling, you just pre-set the timer. The food comes out perfectly cooked and ready to eat.
In the recipe I described above, you can cook everything in one pot - just add olive oil and the chicken in the bottom - it is not even necessary to cut up the chicken.
I am a bachelor and cook almost 100% of my meals using a pressure cooker now. I rarely order takeout, it is so convenient.
I own one, I use it all the time. This is false. I have to remove the seal, disassemble a valve and remove some components. A pot for mac and cheese just gets tossed in the dishwasher.
This is especially false when you want to grate cheese (now I have to clean a cheese grater).
Electric pressure cookers do not reduce the cleanup or prep at all. It replaces one pot, everything else is the same.
Compare this to boil water, dump in a box contents, wait a few minutes. Clean ONE pot and ONE spoon.
Every oven/cooktop I have ever used has a timer.
1. Add noodles
2. Fill to line with water
3. Microwave for 2:30
4. Stir
5. Microwave for 2:00
6. Stir in cheese powder + liquid (butter, milk, or water, in my order of preference)
7. Serve
Only one bowl to clean.
My oven and range do not have a timer. It's beautifully simple. Also, I buy grated cheese to avoid cleanup. That's one of my extragavances.
> Wash after each use with hot water and mild dish soap and allow to air dry, or place in top rack of dishwasher.
> Remove all parts from lid before dishwashing.
> With steam release valve and anti-block shield removed, clean interior of steam release pipe to prevent clogging.
I also had to buy extra seals so my beef barley soup doesn't taste like chili.
I'm the main mealmaker in my family. I generally like cooking, but I get tired of doing it every day. Processed stuff like Rice-A-Roni or Kraft Mac & Cheese, or frozen pizza takes single minutes of my time and only the most minimal effort and will generally be eaten without complaint.
As for cost, these items are pretty cheap averaging $1 or $2 per meal for three people. Maybe add some meat for another $2. That said, ISTR that Americans pay proportionally less of their income for food than anywhere else in the world, so food, processed or not is fairly inexpensive.
Yeah, I know there are other cheap, fast meals I can make starting from raw ingredients: I'm a fairly good cook. However, as I mentioned above, sometimes I simply don't feel like it.
I love to cook and bake, though I have the luxury of doing it when I want to. (My wife usually does most of it). I can make a batch of bread dough for three baguettes in under three minutes. Letting it rise takes no time, though it does require some foresight. Baking is only a few extra minutes of additional effort. I think I calculated that one baguette costs me about $0.17 of ingredients, almost all going toward flour, which I buy in bulk. It's also delicious - frankly, much better than anything I've bought anywhere else except for the boulangeries in France.
[0] http://www.dingostick.com/2017/10/recipe-french-bread.html
I learned to bake bread as a child in my mother's kitchen, equipped with all these amenities. I made some fantastic bread.
I tried it again as a young adult in a small apartment with no dishwasher, a tiny sink, mixing the bread entirely by hand, kneading it on the one corner of a counter not occupied by the microwave, then hand-washing the mixing bowl in a sink with a non-spray faucet while the dough rose before baking it in a cheap oven from 1992.
My apartment was not shitty. Many American adults are currently raising their children in equivalent apartments... more bedrooms, no significant kitchen space, no tools.
A kitchenaid mixer is 1/4 of a month's rent for most.
"Three baguettes in under three minutes" ignores every externality involved in the process.
(1) as other commenters have mentioned, these products tend to be remarkably cheap in money (~$0.50/serving) and are shelf-stable
(2) the USA has a rather poor culture around food preparation, in my experience--especially in poor households. When money and especially time/effort are in short supply, boxed meals (or fast food, etc) are absolutely essential, especially when juggling multiple jobs/kids/whatnot. Shelf-stable is an added bonus, allowing these to be stockpiled when on sale. Further, boxed mac (or canned soup, etc) are things that can be trusted to a child to make while unsupervised: again, a huge force-multiplier for busy households (parent taking kid 1 to sport, kid 2 alone at home, or kids 1&2 home alone while parent at work, etc)
Even when time and other resources are available, many Americans simply aren't very interested in preparing their own food, especially not if they're a single-person household. After a day of work, with nobody to share the bounty of cooking with, it's difficult to argue putting the time/effort/creativity into a meal vs. 15 mins over the stove with some premade stuff.
I say all this as someone who adores cooking, and finds it remarkably good stress-relief. I have a partner I can share dishes (and responsibility) with, and we love a variety of cuisines and being capable of making our own healthy food--but even so we also both love being able to make boxed mac for lunch every now and again. It's simple, and a hell of a lot cheaper than eating out.
Many of my friends growing up had parents working multiple jobs or long hours, who wouldn’t have the time or energy to do this. I had one friend whose single mother wouldn’t come home until 10 PM, so he prepared pre-packaged meals for dinner every night.
If you compare the costs, it’s ~$2-4 per meal in a box, compared to $20-30 to get all the ingredients for meal preparation. Many Americans simply don’t have this amount of cash, and food stamp programs are insufficient in allowing for healthy eating habits.
With the rise of Walmart and Dollar General across America, prepackaged meals seem to be a dominant meal option (I don’t have any data on this, this is just from comparing shopping carts at Walmart vs Whole Foods).
AFAIK, the cheese I'm using doesn't have anything particularly special (some cheap hard cheddar). I don't even grate it, just chop it up a little before adding it to the water.
Edit: actually béchamel had some milk also, but yeah
1. Cheap; yeah, pasta is cheap either way, but real cheese (at least the sort that'd actually be decent in mac and cheese) often ain't
2. Non-perishable; this means we could buy in bulk and not have to worry so much about shelf life, further amplifying Aspect #1
3. Quick; if you just came home from a long day at work, you're not likely to have the energy to prepare some elaborate home-cooked meal every night, so the trusty 'ol blue box it is
4. Easy; one of the first things I learned how to cook when I was growing up was packaged mac and cheese (be it Kraft or some generic brand) - all the ingredients except for water (and, optionally, milk/butter) are right there in the box
These four aspects are applicable for a lot of prepackaged food here in the US. Even if you do add other ingredients (milk/butter to Kraft Dinner, ground beef to Hamburger Helper, etc.), having most of it already ready to go - and cheaply at that - is a godsend for any working class family. And sure, this didn't mean we always ate the prepackaged stuff (my stepmom and stepdad both happened to enjoy cooking from scratch on various occasions, and sometimes it is indeed cheaper to go scratch-made than prepackaged), but it was indeed a staple.
Mac&cheese is quick. Even from raw ingredients.
Maybe this is cultural, but growing up in Europe with a single-mom who worked 2 jobs ... we had homecooked meals only. Store-bought pre-packaged stuff was too expensive and unhealthy.
Takes about 20min to cook a nice weekday meal based on whatever's in the fridge. You pack the fridge on weekends.
aside from that, I think there must be some regional price differences here. a box of annie's mac and cheese is like $1.50, which goes down if you buy in bulk. if you're fancy you can add a pad of butter and/or some whole milk, but otherwise that's $1.50 to feed two people. an 8oz block of cheddar cheese is already $2 at target, and you still have to buy the pasta, milk etc.
mac and cheese is a surprisingly expensive food to cook at home though. I could definitely make a rice and beans for less money.
Well there's your problem! A portion of cheese is 1oz :D
That's 880 calories for $2. Pretty good imo
I think there’s a clear pattern of food cultures being hollowed out over time. It’s great if your parents know how to cook well and you can learn from them, but eventually that chain breaks when a child would rather buy their food than learn to cook it. Making things from scratch is hard and time-consuming if you don’t know how to cook. At that point store-bought meals are sometimes the best remaining option.
The United States gets a lot of flack for being the first country to encounter a lot of issues because we were the first to widely industrialize food, but this will happen everywhere.
It takes half that to prepare it from a box. And most of that time is waiting (either for the water to boil or for the pasta to cook).
And further, you know what you're getting with the blue box. Less risk of messing up, and less painful if you do somehow catastrophically mess up.
Many people don't realize how easy cooking staples can be and are intimidated, or lack the interest to figure it out. That likely correlates strongly to the lifestyle they were raised in. Also, most folks' psyches seem tightly coupled to the foods they were exposed to at a young age. If someone was raised eating Kraft, that's naturally what they'll think of as mac and cheese, and they may never revisit that association as an adult.
Scratch / improvised cooking is a skill that takes practice to be good at. Personally, I enjoy it as a hobby. My mom cooked a lot, but made very bland food. I regularly pick out a random food I enjoyed from childhood, then figure out how to make it authentically. Last month I figured out perogies (I cheated on the mashed potatoes). Last week I made a delicious seared lamb with fennel and tomatoes (I've been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares lately). Over the last two years I've optimized my sourdough technique to the point that it's boring (although I still wish I could get a more sour flavor!) I learned how to make proper wood fired pizza in Italy before COVID, and I'm still enjoying optimizing that at home, and starting to experiment with sicilian style.
My SO has a delicious home-made mac and cheese. It was really hard to find the cheese at Safeway; there were nights I check multiple Safeways. It is just white American. (But not "American" cheese, which is yellow, and has a completely different taste.)
As another commenter mentions, you need the right cheese, as it needs to melt correctly. My understanding is that this is the presence of emulsifiers that cause the cheese to melt correctly, which white American has. My understanding is that, actually, cheese does not, and white American is technically called "cheese product" because it is has emulsifiers mixed it. (So it's not technically cheese anymore.)
(Which is weird, because my understanding for parm in other recipes is opposite: that the cheap parm often doesn't melt correctly b/c it is usually adulterated with cellulose (e.g., wood pulp / plant matter). So I might not have this completely correct. But then, wood pulp is likely also not an emulsifier.)
(We also sometimes cut it with ham, and that is also surprisingly out of stock often. (The small sized ones; I can't use a giant/full sized ham as it would rot.))
Time is a short, I just want something quick to make that's got a decent protein content.
I grew up eating mac & cheese and didn't even realize it was just elbow noodles and cheese sauce.
> From there you can add chicken and fresh herbs.
Due to the car-centric nature of the US, where it is really common to be over 2km from a market, and a trip to the market requires a) driving there, b) parking, c) driving back, the average USian visits the supermarket less frequently than people in other countries because it's more time and resource intensive. This results in larger trips (shopping carts occur in 100% of markets, and also Costco is a thing) and more processed foods with preservatives due to increased time between trips requiring longer shelf life.
Fresh herbs, unprocessed cheese, non-shitty bread, et c - these are way more common in societies that visit the store every 48h (or sometimes even every 24h if there's a bakery on the corner of your block that you pass on foot every day) as opposed to the USA where you might only go to the market every 5-14 days.
Just one more way in which the religion- and racism-motivated US shift to single family detached homes and suburbs cratered the population density and took neighborhoods, sidewalks/walking, camaraderie, local exploration, and fresh groceries along with it as collateral damage.
I don't think that you and I are talking about the same things when we say "unprocessed cheese" or "non-shitty bread". Wal-mart has, in the scheme of cheese and bread available on earth, an absolutely abysmal selection - this remains so even when compared against the US more widely.
Part of this is Wal-mart's focus on a very limited number of suppliers that have many different brands/logos.
Even the mozzarella balls in brine sold in the "fancy" grocery stores are full of adulterants and other things you'd never find in quality cheese. The "fresh" bread from the bakery is lower in preservatives than the bagged stuff, but is nowhere near "good". The worst bakery in any major city in Europe has bread an order of magnitude better than any chain grocery store's "fresh bread" bakery section. (That's not nationalism: you can pick any of a dozen countries to compare.)
...and in many places in the US, that's the only/best available within a 20-30 minute drive. Food deserts (another growing problem) are even worse.
US grocery stores are very bright and shiny and have many different brands available, but the hidden structure is that almost all of those widely available come from a vanishingly small number of conglomerated suppliers, oftentimes using processes or ingredients that are banned in other countries on safety and health concerns. Even the "quality" (aka fancily packaged, more expensive) stuff comes from the same conglomerates and suffers the same problems.
My local grocery store has hundreds of small local brands that are absolutely not a front for some conglomerate. There isn't some secret that only European bakers and cheesemakers know; American bakers can and do bake the same breads and American cheesemakers make the same cheeses, etc.
[1] https://sci-hub.do/10.1111/obr.13126 Figure 1.
Same reason we don't all run OpenWRT on our home routers - yes, it's objectively better and possibly cheaper but most of us don't have the time to prepare the meals ALL the time.
For us, the kids prefer it (even over homemade), and once a week we let them make it themselves for lunch. Done and done.
No, good for them -the kids, I mean.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: We've had to ask you this surprisingly many times. I don't want to ban you, but after years of this I think it's reasonable to expect you to know the rules and follow them.
They probably have, when visiting friends, and just didn't tell you about it.
Source: my Mom was neurotic about food stuff as well.