The Best Spices for Mac and Cheese: Mustard, Cayenne and What Else Works

Homemade mac and cheese is a cheese sauce, and cheese sauces have a classic seasoning pair: dry mustard and cayenne. America’s Test Kitchen’s classic baked macaroni and cheese whisks 1 1/2 teaspoons of dry mustard and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne into the butter and flour before the milk and cheese go in.¹ Catherine Lamb’s Welsh rarebit for Food52, another cheese sauce, does the same.² From there, white pepper, paprika, jalapeño, garlic and Italian herbs each push the dish in a different direction. Quantities appear only where a named recipe gives them.

At a glance

Two recipes side by side

These are the authors’ own recipes, not a house standard. Both build heat and sharpness into the sauce rather than adding it at the table.

Mustard: the classic

Mustard turns up in all three cheese-sauce recipes on this page. ATK whisks dry mustard into the roux with the cayenne,¹ Lamb whisks 1 teaspoon of English mustard powder and the cayenne into the roux for her rarebit,² and Sargent uses a teaspoon of Dijon.⁴ McCormick describes ground mustard’s taste as sharp, hot and slightly bitter, and cautions that more than a small amount can dominate and overpower other flavors.⁸

Dry powder or prepared mustard both work, as the recipes show. Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture notes that yellow mustard’s uses include traditional hot dog mustard, mayonnaise and salad dressings.⁹ A common explanation says mustard’s tang cuts the richness of the cheese; that is a reasonable way to describe the effect, but we found no source that tests it. Mustard is often said to have a long history in mac and cheese; we did not find a historical recipe to show it. See mustard powder uses.

Cayenne and other chile heat

Cayenne

ATK uses 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne in its sauce;¹ Lamb uses it in her rarebit roux too.² Chile heat comes from capsaicinoids, mainly capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin.¹⁰ Cayenne’s red flecks can also go on top of a baked dish for color; that is presentation, not flavor. See cayenne pepper uses.

Jalapeño

Sargent’s recipe cooks half the diced fresh jalapeños with the shallot at the start, then folds in the rest, along with pickled jalapeños, just before the pasta goes into the baking dish.⁴ That gives two kinds of jalapeño flavor, cooked and bright.

Is jalapeño milder than cayenne? Usually, but it depends on the variety and on how much you use. Dave DeWitt’s heat scale, which he calls necessarily approximate, puts ‘Cayenne Long’ at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville heat units and ‘Early Jalapeño’ at 5,000 to 15,000, but lists ‘TAM Mild Jalapeño’ and ‘Cayenne Large Red Thick’ together at 2,500 to 5,000.¹¹ Two whole jalapeños in a pan of mac and cheese can easily bring more heat than a quarter teaspoon of cayenne (our judgment). Jalapeño powder is the dried alternative.

Chili powder

American chili powder is a blend, not a single pepper. The USDA’s purchasing specification lists ground chili pepper, cumin, oregano, salt and garlic powder.⁵ It does not name a chile variety, so the common claim that chili powder is made from ancho is true of some blends but not a rule. Because of the cumin and oregano it pushes mac and cheese toward chili-mac territory. See paprika vs. chili powder and ancho powder.

White pepper

White pepper is black pepper with the dark outer part of the fruit removed.¹² Katzer notes it is often suggested for cream-based sauces where black pepper would spoil the color,³ which is exactly the case in a pale cheese sauce. The flavor differs slightly too: America’s Test Kitchen explains that stripping the skin removes much of the pepper’s volatile oils and aroma compounds.¹³ Black pepper is the choice if you like the specks; Sargent’s recipe uses it.⁴ See white pepper vs. black pepper.

Paprika

Most paprika adds color more than heat. Its red comes mainly from capsanthin and capsorubin.¹⁴ Smoked paprika adds flavor as well: Spain’s Pimentón de la Vera is smoke-dried and has, in its official specification’s words, a smoky, intense and penetrating flavor and aroma.¹⁵ A dusting on top of baked mac and cheese, mixed into the breadcrumbs, is common practice; we found no named recipe with an amount. See smoked paprika.

Garlic

Sargent’s recipe minces one garlic clove and cooks it with the shallot and jalapeño.⁴ If you add fresh garlic to the butter before the flour, America’s Test Kitchen’s warning applies: garlic cooked too long or too hot can burn and turn acrid and bitter.¹⁶ For garlic powder, ATK recommends hydrating it in a little water first, since powder straight from the jar has not developed its full flavor;¹⁷ whisking it into the milk is one way to do that (our suggestion, untested). See garlic powder.

Italian herbs

Basil and oregano both have documented uses with cheese and pasta. PROSEA notes that in Italian cooking basil leaves are used in pizzas, pasta, chicken and cheese dishes,⁶ and Britannica calls oregano essential in Italian pizza and pasta sauces.⁷ Marjoram can stand in for oregano (our judgment); see marjoram. None of the mac and cheese recipes above uses them, so amounts are up to you; a premixed Italian seasoning covers all three. Dried herbs can go into the sauce; fresh basil is best torn over the top at the end (common practice).

When to add each seasoning

• In the roux, with the flour: dry mustard and cayenne.¹²
• With the aromatics: fresh garlic, shallot and some of the jalapeño.⁴
• Folded in at the end: pickled or fresh jalapeños, Dijon, salt and pepper to taste.⁴
• On top: paprika, breadcrumbs and fresh herbs (common practice).

Related

• Spices for grilled cheese
• Mustard powder uses and cayenne pepper uses
• White pepper vs. black pepper
• How long do spices last?
• Dried herbs vs. fresh
• The master list of herbs and spices