Kraft Dinner

Regular Kraft Dinner preparation: boiling water with pasta-noodles inside the pot, cheese powder package and colander to the right

Kraft Easy Mac

Kraft Dinner, also known as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, as well as several other names, is a pasta dish of macaroni and cheese that is produced by the company Kraft Foods.

History

In 1937, Kraft introduced the product in the U.S. and Canada. The timing of the product's launch had much to do with its success. During World War II, rationing of milk and dairy products, and an increased reliance on meatless entrees, created a nearly captive market for the product, which was considered a hearty meal for families.

The following decades introduced improvements in flavor and shelf life. New product lines, using different flavors and noodle shapes were introduced over the decades.

Formulations

The product now comes in three primary compositions:

• The traditional form of dry macaroni pasta and powdered processed cheese. To prepare the dish, one boils and drains the pasta, then adds milk, butter (or margarine) and the cheese powder.
• The Deluxe form, with the powdered processed cheese replaced with a prepared cheddar cheese spread that comes in a foil pouch. This allows the cheese to be applied directly to the cooked pasta without additional preparation or ingredients.
• Kraft Easy Mac, which makes single servings portions. The macaroni and a mixture of processed cheese and milk powder are already mixed in, and the consumer needs to add only water. Additionally, this formulation is the only one originally intended for preparation in a microwave oven.

Marketing

The product was originally marketed as Kraft Dinner, but is now known in the United States and other countries as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (Dinner). In the United Kingdom, it is marketed as simply Macaroni and Cheese, while due to its popularity and nostalgic quality in Canada, it has retained its original name of Kraft Dinner (and the nickname KD). The product is also heavily promoted toward children in the United States on television with the promotional name Kraft Cheese & Macaroni. When advertising to younger children, the television advertisement encourages the children to ask for "The Blue Box."

There are regular promotional tie-in versions of the Kraft Dinner. Packages have come with noodles in the shapes of various characters popular with children, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rugrats, and The Flintstones. In Canada and the United States, Kraft Dinner is offered as an option at Burger King restaurants.^[1][2]

Kraft Foods has also released many products that have been called "Kraft Dinner". These include other versions of macaroni and cheese with different shaped noodles and different flavors, but it has also included completely different dishes, such as spaghetti in several different flavors.

In popular culture

Due to its longevity and popularity, references to this product have been common throughout North American popular culture.

• Singer Kurt Cobain, who suffered from a rare stomach disorder, stipulated in Nirvana's tour rider that his diet consisted only of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.^[3]
• Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies mention the food in their song, "If I Had $1,000,000": "if I had a million dollars/ we wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner.... but we would eat Kraft Dinner... of course we would, we'd just eat more."
• Canadian band Annihilator had written a song dedicated to Kraft Dinner on their second album Never, Neverland called "Kraf Dinner".
• Kraft Dinner is mentioned as a regular dietary staple for Macaulay Culkin's character in the 1990 film Home Alone.
• It is the favourite food of the characters Terrance and Philip in South Park.
• The band Hot Chip has a song called "Crap Kraft Dinner".

References

See also

• Cheez Whiz
• Hamburger Helper

External links

• Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
• KraftCanada Kraft Dinner

Multimedia

• CBC Television Archives Talking about Kraft Dinner (Canadian context) 1997

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