Tillamook can now be found in the frozen mac & Cheese section
With the ‘girl dinner’ trend making its way across the depths of the internet, it’s the perfect time to reminisce on the easiest, most comforting meal of them all: frozen macaroni and cheese or a good ol’ frozen pizza.
Right on time to shake things up — enters Oregon-based Tillamook. The dairy co-op behind the #1 cheddar brand has launched all new pizzas and macaroni and cheese that are making their way to freezer aisles near you this fall.
Tillamook’s new Mac & Cheese and Crispy Stone-Fired Pizza are made with high-quality real ingredients and the team behind these recipes is confident they’ve created restaurant-like cheesy goodness that will go from the freezer to the oven to your table — or let’s be honest, your couch.
The mac & cheese is available in three flavors
Available in three varieties, Tillamook Mac & Cheese is made using al dente jumbo macaroni noodles, creamy sauces, delicious toppings, and Tillamook’s award-winning cheeses in both single-serve and multi-serve sizes. These flavors include Classic Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar & Uncured Bacon, and for a little kick — Cheddar & Hatch Chile.
When it comes to the pizza, Tillamook has made four versions, each where cheese is the obvious star of the show — here you’ll find Tillamook’s award-winning yellow cheddar, whole-milk mozzarella, and Monterey jack paired with premium toppings all atop a stone-fired crust. Flavors include Cheesy Uncured Pepperoni, Three Cheese, Three Cheese Supreme, and a flavor-filled Cheesy BBQ Chicken.
I got the chance to chat with Chef Josh Archibald, the Executive Chef of Culinary Development at Tillamook County Creamery Association, about these fun new items, their development, and the future of frozen foods at Tillamook.
Josh Archibald, Executive Chef of Culinary Development at Tillamook County Creamery Association
Amber Love Bond: You’re making my dreams come true with this mac and cheese! Let’s talk about variety — there are so many delicious cheeses in the Tillamook line, how did you develop these three versions and what was the process like?
Josh Archibald: We are so excited about this launch! The development involved an incredibly talented group of colleagues with many passionate opinions on what the final versions of these dishes would taste like.
We spent more than 2 years defining and developing the “Gold Standard” for our own offerings at our Tillamook Creamery on the Oregon Coast and that recipe was the foundation and guiding principle throughout the entire development process. We wanted to find the perfect blend of our award-winning cheeses while balancing what every consumer is looking for in the perfect Mac and Cheese- melt, stretch, creaminess, and of course- flavor.
Since this is an entirely new category for us, we were fanatical about our approach, ensuring the mac and cheese would deliver on the same quality and consistency standards that consumers have come to trust from all our products.
ALB: What are some of the variations that didn’t make it past testing?
JA: At one point we had a group brainstorm and the ideas got very entertaining. We have a few recipes that we tested with great reviews internally, but opted to pass on for now, though we have the ability to add them in the future.
One of my favorites that didn’t make the cut (YET) was a brisket burnt end version that added a wonderfully sweet/spicy BBQ sauce to the cheese sauce mixture.
ALB: For the pizzas — we’ve got four options: how did you land on those toppings and which cheese are you using?
JA: To develop our pizzas, we gathered insights from consumers, Tillamook colleagues, and did lots of testing. Over the course of a month, I bought every single frozen pizza, brand and style, available at grocery stores within 50 miles of my house and tasted them all, sharing pros and cons from each offering with the team.
Tillamook pizza has entered the chat
Our Tillamook pizzas feature a flavorful, melty blend of our flagship award-winning cheddar, whole milk mozzarella and Monterey jack. We thought this blend of cheeses did the perfect job of balancing what consumers were searching for in the frozen pizza aisle. We also had a hyper focus on ensuring that the final product, even with sauce and multiple toppings, was still as cheese centric as you would expect from a Tillamook product!
ALB : I love that they are considered crispy stone-fired pizzas! How do you recommend they are made at home? And what’s the secret to keeping them crispy?
JA: For this part of the process, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I began my career in a small pizza restaurant and my affinity for all things dough, sauce, and cheese is well known by the people around me.
Luckily, our team collectively agreed that the stone-fired style was the best vehicle for our cheese. It is light and crisp and really feels premium in quality. We also tested and adjusted cooking instructions in many types of ovens to ensure that instructions would be successful, down to accounting for differences in elevation and how that impacts the bake.
Available in four flavors
My personal chef hack is to let any pizza rest for a few minutes once removed from the oven to allow the cheese to settle a bit. This will help ensure the cheese doesn’t slide off the slice when you cut/plate it!
ALB: And of course, I’ve got to ask — will there be more Tillamook products to hit freezer aisles in the near future?
JA: We are always looking for ways to give our existing Tilla-fans a new way to experience Tillamook products, and new categories are a way to introduce the Tillamook brand to new consumers. These new frozen meals do a great job of that, and while I can’t say we have formally decided what might be next for us in the freezer aisle of your grocer, we are excited at all the potential possibilities!
ALB: PS – I recently tried the ice cream (I know I’m SO late to the game) and the Campfire Peanut Butter Cup… holy moly! Gone in 2 days! What are some of your favorite flavors?
JA: There is something so special about ice cream for us and we love to see and hear stories about consumers enjoying it all over the country. That Campfire Peanut Butter Cup has quickly developed a cult following and rightfully so!
My personal favorites are our Oregon Strawberry, Tillamook Mudslide (chocolate ice cream with chocolate fudge ripple and chunks of chocolate) and Old Fashioned Vanilla. To make that even easier for you — our Neapolitan flavor just happens to be exactly those three flavors all in the same container!
Also, we have a new seasonal launch hitting the market in September: Holiday Sugar Cookie and Peppermint Bark that we are really excited about.
Tillamook Mac & Cheese is available now at Target and Walmart and Tillamook Crispy Stone-Fired Pizza will be available in October at select retailers.