Thomas Jefferson served it, Kraft boxed it, and on Wednesday, July 14, 2027, National Mac and Cheese Day gives the cheesy pasta its own spotlight.
Mac and Cheese Day on the Calendar
Look for it on July 14 each year. It’s a food holiday by custom, not by law, so nobody gets the day off.
Jefferson, Hemings and a Blue Box
Nobody has documented who started the food day. The dish most likely came from Northern Europe, Smithsonian Magazine says. Its oldest known recipe dates to 1769.
Monticello’s historians are blunt about one myth. Neither Jefferson nor his enslaved chef James Hemings invented mac and cheese. Pasta was already known in 18th-century Britain and its American colonies.
At Jefferson’s table
Jefferson reached France in 1784, when pasta baked with cheese was in fashion there. By about 1787 he had sketched a macaroni press.
In February 1789, William Short got him a macaroni mold in Naples, and it was sent on to Paris. It probably arrived after he left. His belongings, likely including the machine, were shipped to Philadelphia in 1790.
His notes praise the macaroni of Naples, made from a flour called semola. A screw pushed the dough through holes in a round iron box.
Enslaved chefs did the cooking. His handwritten macaroni recipe was likely dictated by Hemings or Edith Hern Fossett. Hemings had trained in Paris, where he probably learned pasta.
That recipe calls for 6 eggs, 2 wine glasses of milk and 2 pounds of flour. Cooks rolled the dough to “a paper thickness” and soaked the noodles in warm water for a quarter of an hour. To “dress them as maccaroni” meant layering them with cheese.
Guests didn’t always approve. In 1802, Manasseh Cutler wrote of “a pie called macaroni” at the President’s dinner, one that seemed “filled with the strillions of onions.” Meriwether Lewis told him it held no onions at all.
Purchases continued. In 1809, Jefferson paid a Trenton pasta maker $8 for two boxes. He wrote that the maker’s works “makes them well.”
The boxed version
Kraft launched boxed mac and cheese in 1937, deep in the Great Depression. A box fed four for 19 cents, and the company sold 8 million in a year.
World War II helped too, since rationing made fresh meat and dairy scarce. In Canada, the box is still called Kraft Dinner.
Why It Deserves a Day
The dish is cheap and filling, and it carried families through the Depression and wartime shortages.
This day also honors Hemings and Fossett, along with the other enslaved cooks whose skill shaped the food at Monticello.
Cooking Tips for National Mac and Cheese Day
- Bake it: top with breadcrumbs and bake until the edges bubble.
- Blend cheeses: pair a sharp cheddar with a soft melter.
- Stir in extras: broccoli, bacon or roasted peppers all work.
- Chill leftovers quickly: get them in the fridge within 2 hours, or 1 hour if it’s above 90°F.
- Use shallow containers: big batches cool faster when split up.
- Reheat to 165°F: check with a food thermometer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do leftovers keep?
Three to four days in the fridge, USDA guidance says. Frozen, they last three to four months.
Did early American cookbooks include mac and cheese?
Yes. Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife offered macaroni dressed with cheese.
Was good pasta easy to buy in Virginia?
Supplies were thin. A Richmond firm wrote in 1810 that the only macaroni in town belonged to one seller, who said it came from Italy.
Did Jefferson import pasta from France?
In 1816, he paid duties on a box of macaroni sent from Marseilles, along with 50 bottles of wine.