In which Meredith fails at cheese sauce

[maradydd]

So, after a rousing evening of bookcase-painting, I decided to reward myself with some tasty pasta in cheese sauce with kielbasa. In the past, I have had great success concocting this dish with alfredo sauce (melt butter, add heavy cream, grate in Parmesan until thickened), and I recently discovered that the same process works very well with whole milk and smoked Gouda -- it produces a thin, slightly sweet sauce which complements the sausage nicely. Tonight, after considering the (spartan, mostly consisting of beer and Red Bull) contents of my fridge, I settled on a hunk of sharp Cheddar. Melt, pour, grate grate grate, stir stir stir ....

... and I was suddenly disturbed to notice the contents of the pan separating into a curdled, gloppy mess. It had the look of what happens when one pours peppermint Schnapps into Bailey's, only with a yellowish, Cheddary cast to it. I kept it on low heat, attempting to prevent it from coming to a boil, stirring away, wondering whether this were perhaps some pupal stage between ingredients and proper cheese sauce, but eventually came to the conclusion that the cheese sauce had died aborning.

Where did I go wrong? Cheese sauce, how did you elude me? Is whole milk simply not fit to support a proper Cheddar emulsion? Might the fact that the milk was a couple of days past its sell-by date have had anything to do with it, despite the fact that it smelled fine? How can I correct my wrongdoing and stand once more among the ranks of the successful saucerors?

Even now, the failed cheese sauce sits atop my stove, mocking me with its sickly yellow whey. I eat my penne dry, and shudder in fear.

whitebreadchef? sandwichboy? slithytove? enochsmiles? czarina69? Anyone? Can anybody hear me?

Hello?

I --

Comments

[spider88.livejournal.com]

Sharp cheddar just ain't meant to melt into cheese sauce. It also makes for horrendous grilled-cheese sandwiches. Mild cheddar is better.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've had good luck with it on burgers, but that was just letting it melt from the heat of the burger itself.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Hopefully someone with more experience can diagnose it better, but for me this happens when I put the cheese in at too high a heat or leave it in too long. Cheddar I usually stir into a sauce I've already taken off the heat, but there's undoubtedly a better way...

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

The sauce eventually came to a boil despite my efforts, and it seemed to separate even more once that happened, so you may be on to something there.

[sfllaw.livejournal.com]

It is likely that overheating has caused your sauce to split. Also, the acidic nature of the sharp cheddar probably helped in curdling the milk. Heavy cream, with more fat, will not curdle like this.

If you want to use milk, try getting it to a simmer before taking it off the heat and whisking in the cheese in right at the end.

[sandwichboy.livejournal.com]

Short answer...no. No it isn't, and that's due to both the type of cheese AND the fat content of the milk itself.

Long answer: Cheddar generally isn't the best choice for a cheese sauce, but the cardinal rule for cooking with ANY cheese is "DON'T COOK IT" Claris is right, let it boil and it will split or burn very quickly, as you saw. Unless you're making something like Mac & Cheese you want to throw the cheese in as late as possible. You just want to melt it, not cook it. Cheddar is especially vulnerable to splitting from what I've seen.

If you're REALLY attached to the idea of experimenting with a cheddar sauce, I'd recommend using at least half and half or play around with a 50/50 mix of half and half and whole milk. I'd start it with a blonde roux first to give it a bit more structure, then milk/cream, then grate in cheese. You may even get away with a more-milk/less-cream mixture if you start it off with a roux as that'll stabilize it relatively well, but play around with the proportions till you find something close to the kind of sauce that you want.

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

I know the answer! Me! Me!

If you want to make cheese sauce with Cheddar, you have to use a base of white sauce--with flour in it. I know it sounds bizarre, but there you go. You spent enough time in Texas to know how to make gravy, yes? You melt the butter, then whisk in some flour--not enough to get gloppy, but to thicken it. Then add the cream, then your cheese. Works like a charm.

[doissetep.livejournal.com]

Alton Brown made cheese sauce using sharp cheddar in his Good Eats episode, "Using Your Noodle II," which featured his recipes for stove top macaroni & cheese and in his baked macaroni & cheese.

In both cases, the cheese was the very last element to be added to the sauce. In the stove top version, it was permitted to melt without further cooking, in the baked, it went into the oven with the macaroni.

[pandorasfox.livejournal.com]

glad you've got so many smart answers! and yep i was going to chime in since i actually knew this one.........the answer is the only thing that i ever learned to make in jr high home ec class....white sauce! the bit of melted butter, flour, then add milk and your shreaded cheese.....works like a charm. good for mac n cheese if you bake it a bit too.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I've never had much luck with cheddar for cheese sauces.

And I always use real cream. 'Cause I already have problems with my sauces being too thin.

-Ogre

[carolhelga.livejournal.com]

I can't say I've ever personally made cheddar cheese sauce, but I found this yummy-sounding one at http://southernfood.about.com/od/cheeserecipes/r/bl30103x.htm

I think I'll try it myself...soon as I make it to the store for the milk, which I ran out of.

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

Another person chiming in - I regularly use ubersharp British cheddars in my sauces. The British ones will work better than anything from the Americas - not entirely sure why, but they melt better.

Anywho, to make a cheddar sauce start, you've gotta do white sauce, as you've arready been told three or four times. If you start with a white sauce base, it'll actually tolerate being boiled lightly without any ill effects, provided you stir.

The only problem with white sauce based cheese sauces is that they are vastly more prone to lumping, so have to be stirred (I prefer whisking) /constantly/.