• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

NC Folk

Helping communities across the state connect their heritage arts and traditions to local development, education, and active citizenship

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Home
  • Explore
    • So You’re New Here: A Guide
    • Shop NC
    • NC Food Blog
    • NC Field Blog
  • Resources
    • Exhibits
    • Folk Artist Directory
    • Publications & Reports
    • Handbook for North Carolina Folk and Traditional Artists
  • Connect
    • Inside NC: The NC Folklife Podcast Series
    • Press
  • About
    • What We Do
    • History
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Contact
  • Donate

Making Mac and Cheese Better with N.C. Mountain Cheese

by Ray Linville

What’s the most important ingredient in macaroni and cheese? Except for the love that the preparer personally adds, is one item more important than anything else?

Excellent mac and cheese depends on cheese from Ashe County as shown by this dish prepared in a restaurant of Chef Ashley Christensen in Raleigh.
Excellent mac and cheese depends on cheese from Ashe County as shown by this dish prepared in a restaurant of Chef Ashley Christensen in Raleigh.

The questions may seem frivolous because today the recipe at home can be quite simple – unless you’re Thomas Jefferson, who was so consumed with serving the perfect macaroni that he bought a pasta-making machine in Europe. For his baked macaroni dish, he also imported cheese from France. Too bad that he probably didn’t know how good cheese from the mountains of North Carolina could be.

Thomas Jefferson’s fascination with baked macaroni, as evidenced by his handwritten recipe (from Library of Congress), would have been even greater had he insisted on for cheese from North Carolina.
Thomas Jefferson’s fascination with baked macaroni, as evidenced by his
handwritten recipe (from Library of Congress), would have been even greater
had he insisted on using cheese from North Carolina.

In the 1780s when Jefferson was stationed in Paris as the minister to France and also traveled to northern Italy, he became fascinated with macaroni, a highly fashionable food. So captivated was Jefferson with European cuisine, his enslaved chef James Hemings (brother of paramour Sally) spent several years in France learning to prepare favorites of Jefferson, which included a baked macaroni dish.

Jeff Lee sells Ashe County cheese at the Roberts Family Farm outlet at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh.
Jeff Lee sells Ashe County cheese at the Roberts Family Farm
outlet at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh.

Even before Jefferson went to France, the wealthy elite in the North Carolina and other areas in the South likely would have appreciated macaroni and cheese if their libraries included The Experienced English Housekeeper, a 1769 book with the first modern recipe of macaroni and cheese. Later, after Jefferson’s assignment in France, when fellow planters traveled to Monticello and dined with him there, they might have raved about his baked macaroni. Think about how much more they would have raved if the cheese had been from the N.C. mountains. (Jefferson is known for importing cheese and macaroni from Marseilles for his use at Monticello, even after obtaining the pasta-making machine.)

How much more would Thomas Jefferson enjoyed baked macaroni if he had used cheese from Ashe County?
How much more would Thomas Jefferson have enjoyed baked macaroni
if he had used cheese from Ashe County?

In a major shift from Jefferson’s time, the key ingredient for great mac and cheese is no longer perfect macaroni or imported cheese. Observe how the scene is changing in our state. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the mountains, piedmont, Sandhills, or coastal plains. More and more recently, the essential item is cheese from western North Carolina. Whether a main dish or a side, mac and cheese is often described on a menu as being made with Ashe County cheese.

Ashley Christensen, 2014 James Beard award winner of Best Chef Southeast, emphasizes Ashe County as the source of cheese in her restaurant Beasley’s Chicken + Honey in Raleigh.
Ashley Christensen, 2014 James Beard award winner of Best Chef Southeast,
emphasizes Ashe County as the source of cheese in her restaurant
Beasley’s Chicken + Honey in Raleigh.

The status changes for mac and cheese have been phenomenal: from food of the wealthy elite in the 1800s to a meal extender during the Great Depression and now to trendy food of today as part of the rise and recognition of Southern cuisine. Chefs garnering statewide and national acclaim are insisting on using N.C. cheese, particularly that made in Ashe County, in their dishes, and they emphasize local connections to N.C. food producers in menus, ads, and displays.

Chef Rhett Morris, who competed in the 2015 Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series, uses Ashe County cheese to prepare cordon bleu in his eponymous restaurant in Southern Pines.
Chef Rhett Morris, who competed in the 2015 Got to Be NC Competition Dining
Series, uses Ashe County cheese to prepare cordon bleu in his
eponymous restaurant in Southern Pines.

What is it about macaroni and cheese that makes most of us smile? Is it a labor of love by someone dear? Or something special like cheese from western N.C.? For me, it’s walking into a restaurant and seeing Ashe County on the menu board as the source of cheese.

Stacks of Ashe County cheese are displayed for sale at WNC Farmers Market in Asheville.
Stacks of Ashe County cheese are displayed for sale at WNC Farmers Market in Asheville.

_______________________________________________________________

RESOURCES

Chef James Hemings

Culinary Training of Chef Hemings

Got to Be NC Competition Dining Series

Got to Be NC Festival

North Carolina Dairy Artisan Cheese

North Carolina Dairy Products

North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

North Carolina Specialty Foods

North Carolina Specialty Foods Association

North Carolina State Farmers Markets

Thomas Jefferson’s Baked Macaroni Recipe

…………………………………………………………………………
Ray Linville
Ray Linville writes and lectures on regional culture, including foodways and folklife. He has taught in the N.C. Community College System as a professor of English and humanities and served on the board of the N.C. Folklore Society. Read more about Ray’s ramblings at his blog: Sights, Sounds and Tastes of the American South.

 

Related

Filed Under: Central NC, Destinations, Eastern NC, Food, New South, Products, Recipes, Southeastern NC, Uncategorized, Western NC Tagged With: agriculture, Ashe County, Ashley Christensen, cheese, Chef James Hemins, dairy, farmers market, Got to Be NC, Jeff Lee, macaroni, Ray Linville

About deborah-old

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2023 NC Folk · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design