I Tried a 100-Year-Old Recipe for Mac and Cheese, and Found a Secret Ingredient I Never Expected

Have you ever wondered what it might feel like to step back in time and taste a bit of nostalgia? I recently did, with a 70-year-old mac and cheese recipe.

One night, I was scrolling through HBO Max, when a documentary called The Automat popped up. The title caught my eye because I’d seen the name on an old art deco building in Midtown East.  

Automat is a restaurant opened in 1902 by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart. Diners dropped coins into vending machines to unlock freshly made meals like baked beans, pies, and mac and cheese. This was fast casual food before the term was even imagined.

After watching the documentary, I was hooked—part nostalgia, part fascination. While I can’t step back in time to order lunch from a vending machine with brass-trimmed glass doors, I discovered many of Horn & Hardart’s recipes were published in cookbooks and ads, and now live on its website. That’s how I found its baked macaroni and cheese.

At first glance, Horn & Hardart’s mac and cheese looks like the classic comfort food we all know. But one ingredient stands out: canned tomatoes. The recipe calls for a half cup of diced canned tomatoes, which adds brightness and a pop of color that balance the richness of the cheese. I’ve often found mac and cheese to taste flat and overly rich and heavy, so this clever addition is the upgrade this classic dish needs. 

To tie it all together, Horn & Hardart adds just a pinch of sugar, which softens the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out the flavor beautifully. Of all the mac and cheese recipes I've tried, this is the one I'm bookmarking onto my browser.

How To Make Mac and Cheese With Diced Tomatoes

The recipe starts like any classic mac and cheese: Cook your elbow pasta according to package instructions. But to make the roux, melt butter in a double boiler—a small pot half-filled with simmering water and a larger bowl set on top. This gentle heat melts the butter evenly before whisking in the flour, salt, white pepper, and a touch of red pepper (I used paprika).

Add milk and a little cream, and once the roux thickens, add the cheese (I used sharp cheddar since the recipe didn’t specify) and stir until smooth. 

You can make roux without a double-boiler, directly in a small pot, but just make sure to keep the heat low. Here is a guide. 

Toss in the cooked elbow pasta, then fold in the canned diced tomatoes (sweetened with that little bit of sugar) before transferring everything to a baking dish. 

Bake at 400°F until the top is golden brown. The recipe doesn’t specify a bake time, but mine took a short six minutes. 

The recipe claims to serve four to six, but to me, it felt closer to two, which makes sense, considering Automat’s serving windows were small, and each dish had to fit through those glass doors.

This is a creamy and tangy mac and cheese that’s familiar, with a splash of personality. Even though Automat might be lost to time, its legacy lives on in recipes like this one. This mac and cheese remains a classic and it’s one that will now become part of my kitchen.