Macaroni and cheese is the one dish that most children will always eat. And it's the starch that even low-fat, low-carb dieters cannot seem to resist.
Judging from the number of choices in grocery store freezers, it's a safe bet that macaroni and cheese will be showing up on a lot of Thanksgiving tables this year. In fact, mac and cheese is a tradition on the Southern Thanksgiving table. Those Pilgrims didn't know what they were missing!
Our panelists acknowledged that most of them reach for Stouffer's when they want a quick side dish. But Stouffer's wasn't their top pick in a recent blind test.
Instead, our judges were surprised how much they liked the Publix store brand of macaroni and cheese. It comes in a white box with the store label and not much jazz.
The Publix brand ($2.49) received 68 out of a possible 80 points. All four judges said they would buy it in the future.
"It looks homemade, it's creamy and brown (on top)," said one panelist.
Stouffer's ($2.49) was judged a distant second place with 46 points. Judges deducted points for texture and taste. They found the sample a bit dry and bland, compared with the flavorful Publix brand. Two of the four judges ranked Stouffer's high, and two said they wouldn't buy it.
All 10 of the other macaroni and cheese brands were ranked much lower than the top two. The third favorite was Albertsons' upscale store brand, Essensia ($2.69), with 26 points. But none of the judges said they would buy this brand given the two top choices.
To receive good marks from our panelists, macaroni and cheese had to be full of plump noodles, creamy and not too salty. They also wanted to see a nice orange-yellow color. The worst scores went to some of the "natural" samples found at local health food stores. They lacked the heavy cream look and taste.
Panelists were: Personal chefs Julie Overton and Marc Easterman; Bob Devin Jones, actor, director and playwright and Jim Yockey, aesthetician at the Tierra Verde Salon and Day Spa. All foods were tasted blind.
Send suggestions for product testing to Taste section, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731 or e-mail them to krieta@sptimes.com Please put TEST SUGGESTION in the subject line.
