Earlier this week whilst shopping at my local supermarket I stumbled upon a new product which immediately caught my attention for all the right reasons. This new addition to the baked bean isle checks all the boxes for a product I may like, it combines mac and cheese with the convenience of a canned single serve portion. Sure, there are multiple means of obtaining "instant" macaroni and cheese already on the market ranging from packets requiring the addition of milk, butter and at least 20 minutes in front of a stove. Alternatively, there are also microwavable entries, these however take approximately 6 minutes to heat up - which is about five and a half minutes longer than I'm willing to wait for a cheesy mac hit.
I would like to say that interest got the better of me but the sad reality is that I never gave this new canned food stuff a doubt, really, how could you fuck up mac and cheese - especially considering that Heinz has been producing canned (mostly pasta) favorites for millennia.
Before continuing with my review of this product, let me share a screenshot of an email that I sent not all too long ago to Mondelez International, a company that owns Kraft (the king of mac and cheese) which just last year acquired Heinz. Note: I never received a reply.
So, for those wondering how this new conveniently canned pasta meal/snack handles, well, I'm still debating that myself.
- Pros: Cheap, Fast, Shelf stable, Versatile.
- Cons: Lack of strong cheese taste, Watery.
Don't get me wrong, I was by no means expecting a pleasurably sickening bright yellow mass of congealed cheese similar to that of a boxed Kraft dinner but this emulsion of milk solids and 90 degree pasta bends doesn't quite deserve the name macaroni and cheese. Instead, I would recommend that it be marketed as an auxiliary product to Kraft's traditional spaghetti in tomato sauce rather than a stand alone new product of it's own.
Much like canned soup but unlike baked beans, this product's label strongly advises that it be heated prior to serving, the recommended microwave time is a short 60 seconds which makes it the fastest heated mac and cheese meal available on Australian shelves (or freezers) but after sampling a couple of mouthfuls prior to zapping, I can say that it isn't a crucial step - I probably would have been just as, if not more satisfied eating this mess at room temperature.
Although not bad of taste, it is lacking in strong flavor, I assume this is to broaden it's appeal to a younger audience (young children hate mac and cheese, right?) but rather than this being a downfall, I see it as a step towards versatility, for one could simply stir in some additional cheese to both thicken and increase cheesy'ness but if going this path I assume that the purpose of the exercise would be to create a meal without additional components thus being counter intuitive, really, if you want a bowl of mac and cheese, just get a frozen meal or make one from scratch. Where I would recommend this product is for an accompaniment to other foods if you're feeling really lazy, like if you want to eat something but cant be fucked to make a side dish - Boom, this shit will fix that for ya. Or maybe even make use it as a platform to create my favorite dish of Mac cheese, Ham & Peas - Whatever. I will also note that this is a kind of cool idea given its infinite shelf life and can opener-less ring pull system enabling the user to literally walk around with a can in their back pocket ready to whip out and guzzle at the ready. I'm still not entirely done with this product yet, I will need to give both further thought, testing and experiments to make a totally conclusive decision - So stay tuned for an update with the possibility of a shitty recipe and instructional guide.