You should visit Serious Eats and look for Kenji Lopez-Alt's two mac and cheese recipes, both heavily researched and tested in his typical exhaustive fashion.
The first one is his no-compromises version. The second is a quick-and-easy version that he claims is almost as good as the other one.
Basically you need to emulsify your cheese sauce to prevent separation. The blue box from the supermarket includes commonly used commercial emulsifiers.
Kenji usually writes a detailed article that accompanies the recipe, so read his articles before embarking on the actual recipe. That way you'll know *WHY* you are doing something (and often why you aren't doing something).
While this might seem too academic, these sort of nuggets of knowledge are often very applicable for other situations in the kitchen when you are trying to perform a similar task (e.g., prevent oil and water from separating).
Too often recipes are written instructing cooks to do something without explaining WHY (and often more importantly why not).
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The first one is his no-compromises version. The second is a quick-and-easy version that he claims is almost as good as the other one.
Basically you need to emulsify your cheese sauce to prevent separation. The blue box from the supermarket includes commonly used commercial emulsifiers.
Kenji usually writes a detailed article that accompanies the recipe, so read his articles before embarking on the actual recipe. That way you'll know *WHY* you are doing something (and often why you aren't doing something).
While this might seem too academic, these sort of nuggets of knowledge are often very applicable for other situations in the kitchen when you are trying to perform a similar task (e.g., prevent oil and water from separating).
Too often recipes are written instructing cooks to do something without explaining WHY (and often more importantly why not).
Best of luck.