For several years, I have been making my own cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese, per the following method:
Step 0ne. Prepare a medium-thickness bechamel sauce (2 Tbsp white flour “sauteed” in 2 Tbsp butter to make a paste, add 2 Cups milk and cook until thickened).
Step Two. Stir in gobs of shredded cheddar or Jack cheese until the sauce has been completely “cheesified.”
(yes I do have salt and ground black pepper, as well as minced onions in there, along with a half teaspoon of dry mustard; I just don’t think it’s relevant to the problem)
This method, for a long time, rewarded me with a velvety-smooth cheese sauce, suitable for dumping over everything from macaroni and cheese to steamed broccoli.
Lately, however (the last several months), I have noticed that the sauce has a certain grainy texture to it, and I’m at a loss to explain why. I would suspect the cheese (I have taken to freezing my cheese when I have more than I need for right away), but the same textural problem has been transpiring when I make a bechamel sauce as the base for a casserole such as tuna-noodle or turkey-rice, or for use over an asparagus omelet.
Am I just rushing the process? Should I be using milk at room temperature instead of straight out of the fridge? Should I be cooking the flour for a longer time over a lower flame?
I’m thinking cheese too. Admittedly it’s been a while since I cracked open my giant Madeliene Kamman book, though.
Possibly the heat is too high when you add the cheese. Your roux prep sounds pretty right on to me. Oh… I just noticed that you say it happens even w/out the cheese…
Let’s see… Making a beshcamel…
Sweat onions or leeks over low flame. Add flower to make a roux (blanc? don’t remember all the cooking terms). Add warm milk to make a beshcamel sauce. That’s off the top of my head, so I can’t say how accurate that is.
Oh well, my 2 cents land on the milk. Try heating that up a little and see how it goes.
Your first assumption is correct–you’re rushing the process. Don’t use cold milk! Best way to go is to get a second saucepan and heat up your milk to just a very low simmer, then add it to your roux. Add a small amount of the milk at first, stir until it is absorbed by the roux, then add the rest of your milk.
Also, I’ve found a trick that helps with a perfect cheese sauce. I’ll use about half of a good sharp cheddar, and the rest I use processed cheese. The processed cheese melts very smooth, and when I go 50/50 I’ve never had a grainy texture, but with the sharp cheddar flavor I want.
I’m not entirely sure about freezing the cheese changing the texture, but it may play a part in it, since it might change the moisture distribution in the cheese. That’s something I’ll have to check out.
the problem is a result of the cheese have you changed brand of cheese also never freeze cheese if it does get moldy just trim around it but try buying less or just wrap it very tighty and increase your cheese intake
After I picked myself up off the floor, where I landed in shock upon learning that there are people Out There who make their own bechamel sauce for tuna casserole, :eek: I went and looked up “freezing cheese” on Google.
Final answer: generally speaking, don’t. It changes the texture. Duh. But if you’re just going to dump it in your cheese sauce, it doesn’t matter.
Can’t really help you with the regular bechamel sauce thing, but maybe God’s trying to tell you something (can you say “Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom”?)
Although I do, as it happens, have one tiny scrap of insight, left over from my wild and crazy “I will cook for My Man” newlywed days: IMO you’re not waiting long enough for the flour to blend with the butter before you dump the milk in. The novelty has worn off (“Hey, I’m making real live bechamel sauce, just like Julia Child!”) and now you’re just impatient to get done cooking and get started eating.
And I’ve been browsing Google for “bechamel sauce”, and of the first 10 hits, half said “cold milk” and half said “hot milk”. Go figure. [shrug]
I’m going to run find a cite for this, but in the meantime: I remember several cookbooks’ saying that the key point was that the roux and the liquid should be of different temperatures: Cold roux - hot liquid, or hot roux - cold liquid. That may be why you’re seeing the different answers, DDG.
“A roux is started by melting butter or other fat, adding flour, and cooking the two together over low heat, whisking or stirring constantly to prevent scorching. During this process, which takes only a few minutes, the starch in the flour expands as it blends with the fat; if a roux cooks too quickly, the resulting mixture will be grainy. … Despite the legendary rule to add hot liquid to cold roux and cold liquid to hot roux, almost any combination will work. Simply avoid trying to combine cold roux and cold liquid, which would become lumpy, or hot roux and [very] hot liquid, which would spatter and cause burns.”
Thanks Oxy, and all. I’m going to have another go at the sauce tonight, and I’ll let you know how it turns out (Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise).
DDG, what’s supposed to be the problem with a hand-made bechamel for tuna casserole? I used to use cream of mushroom soup in all casseroles, but kaylasmom kept complaining about the resultant product being dry. I figure that if a bechamel-based casserole is too dry, I can always add more milk, but I’ve got this mental block about adding milk to a can of condensed soup. I mean, I do it, of course, when I want to serve soup, but when I put it into a casserole, it feels like I’m just adding noodles, tuna, and a can of peas to, well, a pot of soup. It could be worse, of course. I used to just add about a cup of mayonnaise (that spelling looks weird, to me, but my spell-checker likes it), and forget about soup or white sauce. Anyway, Michaela despises mushrooms, and is exceptionally talented at detecting them in the most infinitesimally-sized pieces. I know. I’m a pushover.
If I noticed a change in the texture of the cheese sauce on my macaroni and cheese, my first thought would be “Did I accidentally let that little aluminum foil packet that the cheese powder comes in fall into the pot?”
