Botch Job Society
”Botch Job Society” is a celebration of life’s missteps and miscalculations. Hosted by Ramero Starks and Chris Brueggeman, two enthusiastic non-experts, this podcast delves into the humorous and humbling world of failure. Ranging from bad movies, blundered products, and even hands-on failures, it’s a no-holds-barred exploration of what happens when things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, the best stories come from the biggest blunders.
Botch Job Society
Dangerously Queasy: Taste Testing Cheetos Mac ’N Cheese
06/07/2024
Botch Job Society
Episode 10: Dangerously Queasy: Taste Testing Cheetos Mac ’N Cheese
What happens when you mix Cheetos with mac & cheese?" We subject ourselves to this culinary catastrophe so you don't have to. From the deceptively named Bold & Cheesy to the stomach-turning Flamin' Hot, we try them all, and boy, do we have some thoughts. Watch as we bravely navigate this neon-orange disaster zone. Will any of these abominations earn a spot in our pantry, or are we destined for a date with regret and indigestion?
[00:00] - Introduction
[00:26] - Opening
[01:04] - What We're Doing Now
[04:05] - Original Flavor Taste Test
[05:54] - Flamin' Hot Taste Test
[07:53] - Ramero Dies
[07:59] - Cheddar Jalapeño Taste Test
[10:25] - Epic Rock, Paper, Scissors
[10:54] - Ramero's Challenge
[16:36] - Chris' Challenge
[22:09] - Final Taste Test
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Botch Job Society is produced by Rock Opera Studios. Check out our YouTube channel. You can find the link on our website or you can go to youtubecom. Slash at botchjobsociety.
Speaker 2:How would you like to start Start? With random dialogue of us talking nonsense and then just cut to the actual episode.
Speaker 1:That's how we always do it. That's pretty much what it is.
Speaker 2:This is a paid advertisement brought to you by Cheeto. I wish man, this one here. Let me tell you what he's a Philly.
Speaker 1:Can you see how?
Speaker 2:maybe it would have been a failure. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Bot's Job Cooking. As you can see, based on what's in front of us here today, we're taking a look into some mac and cheese. We've got Cheetos on the scene.
Speaker 1:So we already have experience with mac and cheese Cut to clip.
Speaker 2:You wonder when you see recipes like this, chris, like who comes up with this crap? You know these noodles aren't softened up or anything. What is this that we're cooking here? I've never not wanted to eat something so bad in my life.
Speaker 1:So I'm hoping that this will be a bit of a better adventure into the world of mac and cheese, although not too confident, but I guess we'll see, you'd have to try really hard to be worse than that first one, though that's true that's true.
Speaker 2:Better ingredients, better mac and cheese.
Speaker 1:So what we've got is we've got three different flavors of some microwave Cheeto mac and cheese. We'll just start up here. We have just a normal bold and cheesy flavor of Cheetos, just kind of your classic Cheetos. We have the other fan favorite of Flaming Hot Cheeto and last but not least, we have a cheesy jalapeno flavor. Now, these are all obviously based on real Cheetos flavors. I am not a huge fan of Cheetos. I will eat them if they're there, but that's not usually what I choose to go with when I'm looking for a crunchy snack. Yeah, especially the jalapenos.
Speaker 2:You know what I actually really do, like the jalapenos. I remember when those started popping up and I was like, hmm, what's that? Oh, really delicious, it's a pleasant. They're really good, right, if anybody were to make a mac and cheese.
Speaker 1:I'm okay with it being them. I was gonna say I think that's kind of like a it's a reasonable Doritos. I would actually I would prefer that than the Cheetos actually I'd be interested.
Speaker 2:Doritos, if you see this. If you see this, maybe bring us some Doritos mac and cheese.
Speaker 1:At least we have a time stamp on when we came up with this idea you know so back to Cheetos.
Speaker 1:So the idea is that we're going to test taste each flavor and then the second half we're gonna try to recreate a flavor. One person will be sitting in our isolation station which we have over there. They'll have headphones on. They'll be watching something completely blocked out from the rest of the world, while the other person is going to choose one of these. They have to recreate the flavor that they choose. The person sitting in the isolation station will come back blindfolded and they have to see if they can figure out which one is which.
Speaker 2:Any early favorites, for which one you think you might want to try to recreate.
Speaker 1:I think jalapeno. I was thinking that too. Well, that's fine, I mean we can, if we end up choosing the same one. I mean then it'd be kind of unique to see who made the better remake.
Speaker 2:Who made the better dupe? Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's get started.
Speaker 2:Original first.
Speaker 1:Original. So basically just put it in the microwave, all right, so we've got this microwaved here and stirred for the appropriate amount of time. I just wanted to show this color. It's a little unnatural, real. Cheeto Not found in nature. Nah, this is a fabricated orange. It definitely it's a combination of Cheeto, but I also think it just smells like regular microwave mac and cheese. There's a hint of Cheeto, for sure.
Speaker 2:That cheesiness. It's got that orange five in it. That's what that is.
Speaker 1:Alrighty, that orange five in it. That's what. That is All righty, not what.
Speaker 2:I thought, yeah, it's super like not cheesy, but Cheeto cheesy. Yeah, you know it's fine, I mean I would. I can see why my roommate ate them. When we were supposed to buy a couple to share, my roommate ate them when you know we were supposed to buy a couple to share and he ate them both. But I get it. They're pretty good. That's okay. You know, if you wanted something quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not really. It's kind of a last resort kind of thing that I would not choose over anything else.
Speaker 2:But that's fine.
Speaker 1:Did you?
Speaker 2:really get in there.
Speaker 1:Like where it's, really saucy.
Speaker 2:Oh, let me get that. That's, that's super Cheeto-y.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it is like just kind of hot, soft Cheetos.
Speaker 2:Hot cross buns.
Speaker 1:Okay, not as much of a failure as I thought, but I get it Decent, decent, All right. Next up is Flamin' Hot.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow it All right. That's.
Speaker 1:Flamin' Hot Cheeto yeah.
Speaker 2:That is Flamin' Hot Cheeto right there For sure.
Speaker 1:And also again, just this color is very unnatural. Yeah, vibrant red, very vibrant, fluorescent.
Speaker 2:Like this could glow under a black light yeah Ready. Cheers. Look at it, just even the sauce on the fork. I know.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that's flame on hot. Oh geez, oh Mmm. It's got some kick to it. Yeah, I don't know. I mean so far. Do you think it's better or worse than the first one? Worse?
Speaker 2:I don't think this has nearly as much flavor. Not that the flavor of the first one was great.
Speaker 1:Well, it tastes like nothing.
Speaker 2:This just tastes hot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I just taste the spicy of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
Speaker 1:But not even at first. It's like, once you swallow it, then you feel the hot. Then you're like, oh, this is Shut up, I'm sorry. I think, yeah, I'd put it second.
Speaker 2:So far it's gonna finish. Third yeah, I have high hopes for the jalapeno cheddar. I think it'll be pretty good. Yeah, and I think really, if you took some of the other one.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, oh, and mixed it in. Mix it in a little bit.
Speaker 2:It would probably be good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because that one was like a little too overpowering as far as cheesy yeah and this one's a little too, and this is just straight spice. Yeah.
Speaker 1:No cheese. Well, I think, then, this one might be the easiest one to recreate, because really all you need to do is just add spice, make hot noodles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's all you need to do. All right, which one is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Alrighty Well, moving on to number three, cheesy jalapeno, would you care to? Oh, yes, Care to grab a bite Perhaps.
Speaker 2:Oops, come on, yeah, cheers, cheers, cheers. That's just like the chip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but there's not much to it. I think there could be more. There should be more.
Speaker 2:I think their problem on the. There should be more. I think their problem on the normal Cheeto. They tried so hard to drive home that extra cheesiness that the other two just tastes like the flavor itself, not so much the cheese part Once again if you combine some of the normal one you got something here. Take a little bit of the cheesiness off the top of the regular, pour it into your other flavors, cheeto, and maybe these will be a little better.
Speaker 1:It's not terrible, though. No, they taste just like the chips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which maybe is probably very easy to do, but kudos to you.
Speaker 1:either way. Think about it Most Cheetos, it's a corn puffed thing with a powder.
Speaker 2:Shaking up in some yeah.
Speaker 1:So you just put the powder in a packet and Theoretically it sounds easy.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's not, I don't know. And if it wasn't easy, good job, because it tastes like the chips for sure. Yeah, pretty much. So what we're gonna do next is do we want to do rock paper scissors to see who goes first? I will redeem myself today, okay okay.
Speaker 1:So the rules are we're going to cook the pasta ahead of the five minutes, because this takes at least six to eight. So we'll cook that first, and so you'll have sort of a blank slate to start putting stuff in, and I'll have plenty of stuff, blank slate to start putting stuff in.
Speaker 2:I'll have plenty of stuff up here to choose from. One thing the biggest takeaway, or giveaway, I should say, is probably gonna be how much better these noodles will feel texture-wise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rather than microwave. Don't think too hard about the noodle Right. Well, I guess we could cook these past al dente to make them a little more like Overcooked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we could cook these past al dente to make them a little more like Overcooked. Yeah, like you know, micro-flavored. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's one, two, three go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, one, two, three go.
Speaker 1:All right, best two out of three, yes, okay, okay, here we go. Whoa, okay, here we go. Alright, here's the final.
Speaker 2:I knew you would go back to that. I knew it. I knew it you redeemed it.
Speaker 1:I'll do it. You redeemed Alright, so that means you get to go first. Okay, so now that our noodles are done boiling.
Speaker 2:You redeemed it. I'm not doing it, you redeemed All right, so that means you get to go first, Okay, so now that our noodles are done boiling, I'm gonna start my recreation process while Chris sits in the isolation station. Again, he cannot hear nor see what I'm doing, so he doesn't even know what flavor I'm trying to recreate, and then he won't really be able to tell, hopefully, which one is the real and which one is the dupe. So Chris is over there finding something to watch and about to get the timer started, and then I'm going to tell you guys what I'm gonna make. Hopefully this works.
Speaker 1:All right, you can start in three, two, one go.
Speaker 2:All right, guys, my timer has officially started. Keeping an eye on the isolation station, making sure that Chris' video is started so he definitely can't see or hear me. Okay, now that he's going. So I'm thinking, guys, guys, I'm probably going to remake the original. Flamin' Hot is a very hard flavor to replicate, to be honest with you, and the jalapeno cheddar sounds fun. I just, I don't really like the midget.
Speaker 2:I don't know I'm gonna see how closely we can replicate the other stuff. So here I just got my bowl of noodles. Crack these open, smash up some Cheetos to make my cheesy powder.
Speaker 1:I wonder what he's doing. I wonder which one he's actually making.
Speaker 2:Can't have too many of these right, wasting some. Okay, I'm going to close up my Ziploc. Try to finely crush these. That ain't really working too well. So we'll see how it goes. The only thing, guys, I don't really sorry. I don't really have an eye on how long this is going to take, or like I don't have an eye on my timer, so I'm really just kinda going with the flow here, hoping for the best. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck. Okay, so I've crushed up my Cheetos about as finely as they'll probably get. Hopefully it blends well whenever I begin to do my mixings. There we go. This is not fine enough, but it's close. See if I can use my fingers to smash it up a little more.
Speaker 1:I'm wondering which one I'm going to do. I'm just chatting to myself.
Speaker 2:So no, it's fine, it's fine. I hear you, buddy, hold that thought, guys Hold that thought, guys hold that thought. Can we have butter? Mmm, I don't even know if my pasta is still hot enough. Okay, so, reheating my pasta a little bit, trying to make sure that it's hot enough for the butter. You got one minute, one minute already. One minute, wowzers. Okay, guys, there's really no time at all. Then Mix that in there a little bit, try to mix in some of this. Crack that open, put a little dollop of that in there and then a little bit more of this.
Speaker 1:Five, four, three, two, one and done. All right. So it is now my turn to attempt a remake of some Cheetos Romero's over in the Mac Museum, aka the isolation station, and he's gonna watch something while I do my thing. So I think I'm ready.
Speaker 2:Your timer begins in three, two, one now.
Speaker 1:Okay. So what I'm gonna do first is, because these noodles have been sitting out for a while, I'm going to try to sort of re-get them warmed up here very quickly. I think I'm gonna try the jalapeno one. It seems a little more doable.
Speaker 2:I failed miserably, not my best attempt. Ah see, now I'm debating.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I wanna do jalapeno or if I want to do the flaming hot.
Speaker 2:Maybe I do the flaming hot.
Speaker 1:I'll do the flaming hot, okay, so I'm going to use some of the spicier ingredients here, and then some of that and some of that. Okay, all right, so I've got. The noodles are a little more hydrated, so in order to make it a little more creamier, I'm going to use a little bit of milk. It's only 2%, so it's not going to be super creamy or anything. Okay, it's only 2%, so it's not going to be super creamy or anything. Okay, I'm going to add a little bit of the cheese powder from the macaroni box, just to get a little consistent. Let me get the original, just so I can sort of help gauge what it's supposed to taste like. Okay, not as creamy. Let me get a little bit of some butter. Hopefully I can get that to melt quick enough.
Speaker 1:So let me start adding in some of my powders. I'm going to use some garlic and I'm going to primarily use some chili powder, because that seems to be what most of the flavor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos is. Okay, it's looking a little more creamy. I'll give it a quick taste test here. Mmm, it needs more spiciness. Add what is this Cayenne pepper? There's not enough cheesy flavor.
Speaker 1:I'm going to add some of this cheese sauce I'm a little afraid of that and maybe some paprika and a little bit more chili powder. Ooh, that's a little too much. Okay, I'm hoping that if I make it spicy enough that he won't really notice. He won't really notice the difference, he'll just taste the spice and sort of be confused. Now I can really taste the. Let me try this. It's hard because I don't know how much time I have left.
Speaker 2:One minute remaining Alright, one minute. See, guys, look how calm he looks in comparison to like. I freaked out when he said that to me One minute already.
Speaker 1:I don't think this is gonna improve it, but we'll try. Maybe if I give it a little bit more chili powder, although it already has plenty of kick, that is kind of burning my mouth right now. Okay, well, it's a good thing we're doing this blind, because obviously you'd be able to tell which is which.
Speaker 2:Okay, ten, oh, all right you'd be able to tell which is which.
Speaker 1:Okay, ten, oh, all right.
Speaker 2:Okay, five four three two, one.
Speaker 1:It's just gonna have to be that way.
Speaker 2:Your time is up, chris, all right.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 2:Step away from your station, chef.
Speaker 1:I feel like my ears Fold it over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just kidding guys. There will be no mac and cheese.
Speaker 1:Send us the money or Chris gets it All right, guys.
Speaker 2:So here we have our two test subjects Chris, left or right, ooh Um.
Speaker 1:Left Our two test subjects.
Speaker 2:Chris, left or right, ooh left.
Speaker 1:I don't like your answer, so I'm just gonna undermine it, okay left.
Speaker 2:I considered it after the fact.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know, because I can't see where the fork is. You can just hand me the fork whenever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I figured you probably didn't want me passionately feeding you on camera.
Speaker 1:Ah, here comes the airplane. Oh, okay, all right, all right, this is the first one. Okay, I'll save my final judgment for it. I'll save my final judgment, I'll save it. And number two Okay, the first one is definitely yours.
Speaker 2:It's painfully obvious, isn't it? It's not even close, but it's not bad. It would have been good if I actually finished out what I was doing Right Versus freaking out when I heard one minute left, one minute already.
Speaker 1:So what was your? Just briefly explain your process.
Speaker 2:I started off with the intent to crush the Cheetos. And then I realized they weren't really crushing very well. It's hard to get it really fine. And then I began rushing to throw in a dollop of the nacho cheese. Try to pour in some of this. I wanted to pour in some of the original cheese mix, but not like I didn't want to just be like pile it on.
Speaker 2:Maybe, it would have worked, because it's super cheesy. Honestly, it came down to poor time management. It was supposed to be crushed Cheeto, the nacho mix and some of the nacho cheese, right, but the noodles got kind of cold and very like starched up together, so I tried to throw some water and some butter in there to kind of get it back liquidy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it just yeah, it didn't work. So there's my botched version of mac and cheese.
Speaker 2:You can see that the noodles have not even fully changed color at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not coated.
Speaker 2:You couldn't really bind it.
Speaker 1:I'm wondering if we had blended the Cheetos, if that would have been better to get a yeah.
Speaker 2:Probably in retrospect, but we wouldn't be botched up, folks, if we weren't Right yeah, all right, let me get the overhead camera.
Speaker 1:Just to compare, these are mine. Oh well, this is mine and the other one is not. All right, would you like, let me mix them up.
Speaker 2:I think I'm gonna be able to tell yours, just for the fact that I smell the garlic powder, and I'm gonna taste this Gosh dang it. To be fair, I smelled it when I left the isolation station. Okay, all right, but texture-wise I'm sure yours will be more similar.
Speaker 1:Left or right, not like I have a choice here Right, right okay, it's not like I have a choice here, right, right, ok.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wait, choose again, choose again. Yeah, I never second-guess myself. Right, ok, I can't hear you scooping.
Speaker 1:I just know you're doing it, it's fine. It's fine, all right, you ready.
Speaker 2:Probably already know I have some water right here if you need some water. Yo, yo, that's crazy. I'm going to commit. That's crazy. I'm going to commit. That's crazy.
Speaker 1:That's the original. Okay, you ready here you go Okay, obviously, dupe original. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The hardest part about this and now I'm seeing this and tasting yours and mine you simply cannot recreate the creamy feel and texture of the original. Yeah, it's very hard to like match it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, off bat, the moment you put a couple of the noodles, the moment you get a taste of a couple of the noodles figuring out the best way to phrase that there's a chalkiness, like a dryness to it that just doesn't match up to what's in the microwavable cup. So that's the first dead giveaway, aside from the fact that you tried to kill me in between cayenne and crushed red pepper. Sorry, no like. Immediately I was like that's some pepper, that's some pepper.
Speaker 1:My process was well. Originally I was gonna do jalapeno. I think I'm gonna try the jalapeno one I thought you were.
Speaker 2:I thought you were gonna commit to that. I was looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:But then I was like maybe do flaming hot. My whole process was like if I just make it spicy enough, maybe he won't notice, Like all he'll taste is spicy, and then he'll be like I don't know which one is which.
Speaker 2:I like the thought At least all your noodles are coated. Yeah, this whole side of my tongue. I just still taste the spices. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1:Like it's like. I guess that's where most of my bite was.
Speaker 2:Let me re-taste it. No, it's actually very funny.
Speaker 1:Because I only did it like, I only taste-tested it twice. Oh, that's really spicy.
Speaker 2:Almost immediate. You're like oh, that's spice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it's just it's not. I mean it's just, it's not not even close, really it's not even close. It's just, it's not not even close, really it's not even close. It's so hard. These spices are a little. I don't know what the word is, but it's just like a. It's not a. I don't know. I keep trying, but I think just, and a loss for words. This is just so artificial that you can't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't replicate it, really, yeah, and I think, really the only way to get close is probably to just fully blend a bag of the corresponding Cheeto flavor, along with maybe some butter and some milk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If we were to do this again.
Speaker 2:I feel like I know what I did wrong. First of all, shut the heck up. Second of all, figure it out. But they were interesting. I'm glad we tried that, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know how long they've been around, but oh, at least a year.
Speaker 2:At least a year and some change, yeah, so check it out, tell us what you think. How would you make it better?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm curious to see if there's anybody who's actually into food who would know how to sort of reconstruct it from scratch If you gave me more than five minutes and a timer that I could actually see.
Speaker 2:I'd wow, you Give me some privacy with this mac and cheese and I'm gonna bring it back and he won't know the difference. Again, as always, follow the socials. Subscribe on YouTube. Like this video. It'd be nice if you could comment too, but you know, whatever, yeah, we'll respond to everything.
Speaker 1:I respond. I could comment too, but you know, whatever, yeah, we'll we'll respond.
Speaker 2:I respond. I have nothing better to do um I get the notifications and I'm like, oh yeah, how about this? What you think, yeah, um, also an underrated thing you guys are forgetting to do. Leave a voicemail.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've been checking every week and there's not been a single voicemail, except for the one that I did to test. Um, and every time I log in I'm like oh, there's oh, no, it's me. Yeah, it's just me leave a voicemail, except for the one that I did to test. And every time I log in I'm like oh, there's a oh, no, it's me.
Speaker 1:It's just me Leave a voicemail. You'll actually be on the show. You'll hear yourself on the show, and we love hearing just anything. It can be really, really be anything. Super easy. Just go to the website and there's a whole section that says leave a voicemail here and just click on it.
Speaker 2:Which brings me back to the important notes. Follow the socials. Subscribe to the YouTube. Hit the bell as well. Please comment. Go to the website. There's plenty of nice little stuff on there and it's just pretty. There was a lot of work that went into that website, yeah, so please go enjoy it. Thank you all for watching. We look forward to seeing you next time on Botch Job Cooking.
Speaker 1:Goodbye.
