Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I can make a silky smooth French buttercream, and a satiny, shiny chocolate glaze, but for the life of me I cannot seem to make a smooth bechamel-based cheese sauce. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it is always grainy/gritty and it's driving me crazy.

I start with a butter/flour roux (1 T each per cup of milk), cook until just slightly toasty, then slowly stir in hot whole milk. I let this thicken, then slowly stir in freshly grated cheese (usually medium cheddar, plus a few other cheeses thrown in for flavor).

But it turns out grainy/gritty. Every.damn.time.

So please tell me what I am doing wrong - I can't stand it any more! Am I undercooking/overcooking the roux? Using inferior cheese (I generally use block cheddar - nothing fancy, just regular old block supermarket cheddar). It's grainy from the start, so I know that the other cheeses I throw in aren't the problem. HELP!

Darcie,

Another slight correction, this is Sauce Mornay.

James Peterson warns about using supermarket cheese, preferring "well-aged, honest cheese" but doesn't say shy. He does say that young cheese makes a mornay stringy. Peterson specifies 4 ounces of cheese per quart of bechamel, than doesn't seem like much.

I am no expert at this but, I remember the trick of adding some flour to the grated cheese before adding to make Alfredo sauce. Be careful to limit the flour and cook the taste of flour out of the sauce.

Good luck,

Tim

ps: Cook's uses evaporated milk and eggs in their mac and cheese. Adding evaporated milk to a separating mornay will bring it back together according to a discussion on eGullet.

I may be wrong but, I really think it's the type of cheese that is causing the problem.
I have found cheddar is the worst for causing the problem. Gruyere works the best for me. I now try to avoid cheddar for sauces and put it on top of the dish if I want the flavor in the dish.

Laurie

Darcie, don't add the cheddar all at once. Stir or whisk in a little at a time allowing each addition to melt before adding more and it won't be grainy. Other cheeses melt just fine when added all at once but cheddar needs to be added slowly.

Judy

This has to do with the age of the cheese and the amount of moisture left in it, as well as the amount of fat in the cheese. Older cheddars seem to be the worst culprits. I find a spoonful of creamcheese added to the sauce will help.

Hmm .. wierd, I've had not problems at all with older cheddars, nor new ones. However, I think your average american cheddar is quite different from your average (*) Canadian cheddar, so that may account for it. Cheeses like Black Diamond aren't even at our cheese counter, they can only be had in the dairy product section.


(*) Defined as what is mostly filling the cheese counter at your chain supermarket.

Thanks for the advice - I knew I could count on this crowd.

I do add the cheese slowly, so it must be thetype of cheese. I will try again with another cheese, but DH really likes cheddar. I suppose I could just use Velveeta and he would be happy.

Tim, I didn't call it a Mornay because I add way more cheese and thought that might not be an accurate description. But you are indeed correct that when you add cheese to a bechamel it becomes a Mornay. (I do remember the great sauce lesson from New Orleans).

Also, I have tried the Cook's version with the evaporated milk and eggs and found it too rich and cloying, but it was, indeed, smooth. I even added a little mustard to this one for the emulsification effect but to no avail.

Off to the cheese counter! Thanks, guys.

Darcie,

My sweetie, who makes aged cheddar souffle all the time, says:

1. Keep the heat low, so that the milk doesn't curdle, and

2. Add the cheese in small batches, waiting for each handful to melt before adding more.

You should be able to make a cheese sauce from cheddar, even aged cheddar.

I say: you might also be toasting the flour too much. Bechamel roux is blonde; you barely toast it at all.

I was wondering about that. I will try again this weekend and report back. I will do this, dammit!

This problem has been bumping around in my head for a couple of days. It certainly tends to sound like a 'broken' sauce, and for this sort of sauce, it would commonly come from too much heat causing separation. I often mix the cheese in with no heat, or only on absolutely low. I think heat is a good possible candidate for the problem.