Stouffer’s Releases Its First Non-Freezer-Aisle Product: Supreme Shells & Cheese

Exactly a century ago, in 1924, Abraham Stouffer opened up Stouffer Lunch in Cleveland, a streamlined restaurant serving up a limited number of menu items (buttermilk, pie, and four sandwich options). Soon, that restaurant concept expanded and eventually converted into the frozen foods empire we know today. Yet while Stouffer’s is known exclusively for its frozen prepared meals these days, the brand is about to make the leap to another grocery aisle entirely. Beginning this month, shoppers can pick up a new shelf-stable version of Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese — a boxed version with dry pasta and a liquid cheese sauce packet. 

Stouffer’s Supreme Shells & Cheese is the brand’s first-ever shelf-stable macaroni and cheese offering and, indeed, the brand’s first-ever non-freezer-aisle product. It’s described in a press release as “elevated comfort food” and comes in two varieties, Cheddar and Three Cheese, the latter of which contains a blend of white cheddar, Gouda, and Parmesan. The company also notes that “additional innovations” will roll out in 2025 and beyond, though it’s unclear whether this is referring to additional mac and cheese flavors or additional varieties of shelf-stable meals. 

Cooking up a batch of Stouffer’s Supreme Shells & Cheese sounds pretty much the same as cooking its most similar counterpart, Velveeta Shells & Cheese: boil the noodles on the stove, drain the water, and add the liquid cheese sauce. However, the Stouffer’s box boasts that it contains “10% more cheese sauce than Velveeta,” which delivers “a more cheese forward flavor profile,” according to the brand.

Stouffer’s Supreme Shells & Cheese has one potential benefit over the brand’s original mac and cheese. Cooking the pasta on the stove until the shells are al dente could help alleviate what some customers point to as a flaw in Stouffer’s frozen product: the mushiness of the pasta in the final dish. That mushiness comes from heating up the frozen pasta and cheese sauce beneath a plastic film, which, even though partially vented throughout the cooking time, can trap steam and moisture and waterlog the noodles. This, of course, is not exclusively a Stouffer’s problem. It can be a challenge with just about every frozen pasta product on the market, plus ready-to-eat canned pasta products such as Chef Boyardee. But by cooking the noodles separately and keeping the cheese and noodles apart until the end, the new boxed stuff might just have a textural advantage. 

Stouffer’s new shelf-stable mac and cheese will be available starting this month, both on Amazon and at select major retailers nationwide. Its suggested retail price is $3.99 per 12-oz. box. If this stuff is as singularly cheesy as the brand claims, then it deserves inclusion on your shopping list.