The Best Pressure Cooker Mac and Cheese

Christmas Day 2017. My forty-eighth birthday. The last Christmas with Marcus in this house as a boy who has not yet become who he will become, though I did not think of it that way then. I thought of it as Christmas. I thought of it as my birthday. I thought of it as the day I cook the meal that is the culmination of everything Mama taught me, served on a table that holds everything I love.

The morning service was beautiful. Calvin preached about the shepherds, about how God chose to announce the greatest birth in human history to the people who worked at night, the people nobody noticed, the people who kept watch over things that could not thank them. He said the shepherds were the first ministers, and the field was the first sanctuary, and the watching was the first worship. I sat in my pew and thought about kitchens and late nights and the watching that mothers do, and I felt seen by a sermon in a way that I do not always feel seen, because Calvin was preaching about the invisible laborers and I have been invisible my whole life, standing at stoves that nobody photographs, feeding people who do not know my name, and the seeing was a gift more precious than anything under a tree.

CJ drove from Huntsville. Destiny drove from UAB. Marcus was already at the table. The table was set for five, with the place I always set in spirit for Mama, and the food was everything: fried chicken, ham, collard greens, mac and cheese, candied yams, cornbread, dressing, sweet potato pie, pound cake, coconut cake, peach cobbler. The table groaned. It is supposed to groan. A Christmas table that does not groan is a Christmas table that has not tried hard enough.

Calvin said grace. He thanked God for forty-eight years of Loretta Mae Simms, which made me blush and which made Marcus say amen louder than necessary, and then we ate. We ate the way the Simms family eats on Christmas: fully, gratefully, with the knowledge that the food is not just food but a bridge between who we were and who we are, between the kitchen in Bessemer and the kitchen in Forestdale, between Mama's hands and mine.

Marcus gave me a cookbook. Not just any cookbook — a collection of handwritten recipes from the AME church tradition, compiled by a woman in Atlanta who spent twenty years collecting recipes from church kitchens across the South. I opened it at the table and saw recipes I recognized because they are recipes I make because they are recipes Mama made because they are recipes her mother made. The book was a mirror. I saw myself in every page. Marcus said he found it at a bookstore in Birmingham and knew it was mine. My boy. My boy who buys his mother a cookbook that is a mirror. My boy who sees me.

I called Mama after dinner. She said Happy Birthday. She said Merry Christmas. She said my coconut cake probably still needs more coconut. Some things never change. Thank God some things never change.

Of everything on that table — and Lord knows there was plenty — the mac and cheese is the one Marcus has asked me to make since he was old enough to hold a fork. It sits right in the center of the spread, between the collards and the candied yams, and it carries the same quiet authority that Mama’s kitchen always had: no fuss, no shortcuts, just richness earned. Since my children scattered to Huntsville and Birmingham, I’ve made peace with the pressure cooker for this one, because it gives me back twenty minutes I can spend setting that fifth place at the table — the one I always set in spirit for Mama — and it comes out just as creamy, just as full, just as right.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 lb elbow macaroni, uncooked
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded
1 cup Colby Jack cheese, freshly shredded
4 oz cream cheese, cubed and softened

Instructions

Load the pot. Add the uncooked elbow macaroni, water, salt, dry mustard, garlic powder, black pepper, and paprika to the pressure cooker. Stir briefly to distribute the seasonings. Do not drain before cooking.
Pressure cook. Seal the lid and set the pressure cooker to high pressure for 4 minutes. While it comes to pressure and cooks, shred your cheeses if you have not already — freshly shredded melts far smoother than bagged.
Release and stir. Once the cook time is complete, do a quick pressure release. Carefully open the lid — there will be a small amount of liquid remaining in the pot, and that is exactly right. Stir the pasta to loosen.
Add the dairy. With the pot on the saute or warm setting, stir in the evaporated milk, whole milk, and butter. Mix until the butter is fully melted and the liquids are incorporated.
Melt in the cheese. Add the cream cheese cubes first, stirring until smooth. Then add the cheddar and Colby Jack in two or three additions, stirring between each addition until the sauce is thick, glossy, and fully melted. Turn off the heat.
Rest and serve. Let the mac and cheese sit uncovered for 3 to 5 minutes — it will continue to thicken as it rests. Taste and adjust salt if needed, then serve directly from the pot or transfer to your best casserole dish for the table.

Nutrition (per serving)

The Best Pressure Cooker Mac and Cheese — The Dish That Held Its Place at Loretta’s Christmas Table