Archer Farms Five Cheese Macaroni Home-Style Baked Entree

Acquired by: Retail purchase at local Target store

Price: $3.49

Rating: 4 out of 5

As I’ve become more familiar with Archer Farms, the premium house brand of foods at Target stores, I’ve begun expanding the range of items I’ll try. Last weekend, I was inspired to check out one of the Archer Farms boxed dinners - Five Cheese Macaroni.

It is tempting to compare this to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, the best known boxed macaroni and cheese dinner on the market. Clearly, though, Archer Farms isn’t aiming at the kiddies with this product.

From the box -

The ultimate in grown-up comfort food, we take mac & cheese to the next level with this dish. Our pasta is bathed with a luscious Parmesan, Romano, Cheddar and Asiago cheese sauce with a touch of tangy blue cheese, and then topped with herb and Parmesan bread crumbs - creating that perfect marriage of crunchy and creamy.

I’ve made my share of the Kraft product, even as an adult - there’s no denying that it’s quick, tasty, and cheap. I’ve also made macaroni and cheese from scratch, using assorted cheeses to create the sauce, and baking the casserole in the oven.

Archer Farms Five Cheese Macaroni comes somewhere between the two. The box contains three packets - the thick, curly tubes of pasta (sadly, they don’t name the variety for us), a packet of sauce mix, and one of the crumbs for the topping. The home cook needs only to add milk and butter to complete the dish.

I boiled up the pasta according to the instructions. While it cooked, I began the sauce, heating the milk with the butter on med-low, as specified. I think they expected that the sauce would be done about the same time as the pasta, but I found that the milk took longer to bring to temperature. Next time, I’d start the sauce before the pasta.

By the time I drained the pasta, I still needed to add the sauce mix into the hot milk, then cook it for five minutes. “Or until the sauce is slightly thickened.” By my estimate, the sauce hadn’t thickened noticeably after the five minutes, so I gave it five more minutes.

I was still unsure about how thick it was by then, but decided to go ahead from that point - I was afraid of scorching the milk in the pan. I poured the pasta into a Pam-sprayed 8×8 inch glass baking pan (an alternative choice if you don’t have a 2-quart casserole). The sauce was poured over all, then the crumb topping sprinkled over.

The instructions say to bake for “20 minutes or until heated through” in a pre-heated, 325 degree oven. After 20 minutes, we took the pan from the oven, and felt it was still far too liquid to be done. We baked for an extra 10 minutes.

At that time, the macaroni and cheese still seemed far more liquid than it should. The top hadn’t browned too much yet, though, so we decided to go for one more 10 minute run. It still seemed a little too fluid after that time, but the top was now just about perfect, so we thought we’d see if a sitting time helped.

After about 20 minutes, the casserole was just about perfect. The sauce had firmed up, allaying our fears that we’d made an oven-baked soup. We spooned out a couple of servings, and dug in.

Folks, this stuff was good! As I mentioned, I’ve made macaroni & cheese from scratch before, and this had the same sort of mellow taste and semi-firm texture you’d expect from homemade. The flavor was a perfect blend - no one cheese stood out as a star, but all came together to create a smooth, creamy, cheesy note.

Not only was the taste and texture like homemade, the sauce was much easier to make than working from scratch. Here, I had a powdered mix that I added to the heated milk. From scratch, you’d have to grate a couple cups of cheese, then slowly stir it into the hot milk until it was all melted.

The box front claims this makes 4 hearty servings, and since Gryphon and I ate this as a meal by itself, that’s how it worked out. (The nutritional information, oddly, claims that there are six servings in the package.) We ate well for dinner on Saturday. Then for Sunday lunch, we had a second excellent meal. The leftovers took to re-heating in the microwave quite nicely.

I think the issues I had with the baking time could have been alleviated if the instructions had included some descriptions of the expected results. They could easily have added a line telling the home cook to “Allow to rest at room temperature for X minutes to firm up before serving.” If I’d seen that, I would have been okay with the amount of liquid the casserole still showed after baking.

I’d also recommend suggesting that the milk be put on to heat just as you’re putting the water on to boil for the pasta. The instructions currently explain how to cook the pasta in Step 2, then in Step 3 they say “Meanwhile, …heat…milk and …butter until butter is melted.” If, instead, Step 2 had you starting the sauce, then Step 3 the pasta, I think the timing might work a bit better.

In spite of the box instructions, Gryphon and I both give this a hearty 4 out of 5. The flavor was as good as my homemade macaroni and cheese, and the dish was easier to prepare. Next time, I’ll know from this experience to start the sauce sooner, and to let the casserole sit after baking.

Related Links:

• Archer Farms (Warning - plays video and sound.) This is a minimally informative promotional site at Target Online, but it appears to be the only one they offer. Archer Farms foods are not available for purchase at Target Online - only in brick-and-mortar Target stores.

Posted: September 24th, 2007 under Box Dinners.
Comments: 2