Skillet Mac and Cheese with Bacon Crumbs
Boxed-out mac built from shelf-stable powder, freeze-dried bacon, and toasted breadcrumbs stirred in at the end.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Elbow macaroni | 6 oz | about 1 1/2 cups dry |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried or shelf-stable cooked bacon | 2 oz | precooked bacon crumbles work |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/2 cup | |
| Cheddar cheese powder | 1/2 cup | sharp if you can find it |
| Grated parmesan | 3 tbsp | the shelf-stable green-can kind |
| Cornstarch | 2 tsp | |
| All purpose flour | 1 tbsp | |
| Butter powder or ghee | 2 tbsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 tsp | paste or powder |
| Dijon mustard | 1 tsp | squeeze packets from a deli |
| Onion powder, garlic powder, dried parsley | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Panko breadcrumbs | 1/3 cup | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | for toasting the crumbs |
Method
- Dry-toast the panko in the empty pot with the olive oil over low heat. Stir constantly, two or three minutes, until it goes golden. Tip it into a mug or a bag and set it aside.
- Boil 700 ml of water in the same pot. Add the macaroni and cook until it is just barely soft, around eight minutes. Do not drain it into the dirt: pour off all but about a cup of the cooking water into a bottle for washing up.
- Cut the heat to the lowest flame it will hold. Sprinkle the flour and cornstarch over the pasta and stir hard for thirty seconds so they do not clump.
- Stir in the milk powder, cheese powder, butter powder, bouillon, mustard, and the dry seasonings. Keep stirring. It thickens fast at this stage.
- Add water a splash at a time until the sauce coats the pasta instead of sitting under it. Fold in most of the bacon.
- Off the heat, scatter the parmesan, the toasted crumbs, and the rest of the bacon over the top. Eat straight from the pot.
The original is a baked casserole: roux on the stove, breadcrumbs browned in butter, twenty minutes in an 8x8 dish. None of that survives a stove with one burner and no oven, so the structure changed. The roux becomes flour and cornstarch dusted straight onto the drained pasta. The milk, half and half, and shredded cheddar become powders, which is the only version of cheese sauce that travels without a cooler. The bake becomes a stir.
The crumbs are worth the extra step. Toast them first, in the dry pot, before any water goes in; add them at the end and they stay crisp for the length of one meal. Stir them in early and they turn to paste. Low heat matters once the powders go in, because cheese powder scorches on the pot bottom faster than you would expect.
Packing
Combine the milk powder, cheese powder, butter powder, flour, cornstarch, bouillon, and seasonings in one small bag at home. Macaroni in a second bag, panko and bacon in a third so the crumbs stay dry and crisp.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use a foil packet of tuna, or leave the meat out entirely and add more parmesan.
- A handful of dried peas or freeze-dried broccoli tossed in with the pasta gets a vegetable into the pot for free.
- No cheese powder? An ounce of hard cheddar grated in works, but the sauce will break if the pot gets too hot.
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/gourmet-baked-mac-cheese-bacon