The earliest reference to macaroni and cheese is a 1928 Dorothy Dickins authored federal government report about farm families in the Mississippi Delta. Dickins found that most African-American women had never tasted macaroni and cheese and only a few cooked it for their families because they complained that it was too “starchy and gummy.” Dickins goes on to say, “The majority feel that they have too little cash to spend on something which they perhaps cannot properly prepare or which, if they can, the family probably will not like.” Today the dish is a special occasion must on African-American tables. How did it happen?
