What is your go to Cheese Sauce recipe??

[Taurahe]

I have been experimenting with mac and cheese for as long as I can remember. I have tried all of the cheese sauces it seems like ..... milk and cheese, roux based, Velveeta based, combinations thereof....... as of late I have been liking the Kenji J. alt Lopez recipe. No roux ( contrary to belief, it is highly over rated), quick and easy and its easy to do as a double boiler method to cook the noodles and the sauce at the same time !! I have experimented with recipes from Vincenzo plate, Joshua weisman, Matty matheson, martha Stewart......... Kenji is where I have landed... for now. In cane anyone was wondering, the Kenji recipe utilizes American cheese because it contain sodium citrate ( I used Velveeta) , after two hrs on the stove it wasn't a congealed block, it was still thick and creamy , held its consistency and the noodles didn't absorb it. Exactly how I like it, and easier than messing with measuring out sodium citrate and getting the ration right, which was my previous method........ so what's your go to Cheese Sauce recipe???

 

[Jovidah]

Guanciale, egg yolks, parmiggiano and black pepper?

 

[Taurahe]

Guanciale, egg yolks, parmiggiano and black pepper?

meh...... carbonara is delightful, but its also greatly over hyped, IMO.

 

[Beerzebub]

Different strokes I guess. For my taste American style macaroni and cheese is over hyped. If I'm making cheese sauce for pasta I pretty much stick with Mornay, made with actual cheese.

 

[Taurahe]

Different strokes I guess. For my taste American style macaroni and cheese is over hyped. If I'm making cheese sauce for pasta I pretty much stick with Mornay, made with actual cheese.

I wont disagree, that why I use Macaroni and cheese as a vessel to greater things, like Korean fried chicken Mac n cheese. But I'm curious to what you think proper American cheese sauce is made from ...... because the 1.5lbs of provolone that went in to my Mac n cheese was definitely real cheese.

 

[Beerzebub]

I wont disagree, that why I use Macaroni and cheese as a vessel to greater things, like Korean fried chicken Mac n cheese. But I'm curious to what you think proper American cheese sauce is made from ...... because the 1.5lbs of provolone that went in to my Mac n cheese was definitely real cheese.

Yep I wasn't clear, I just meant the Velveeta/American processed cheese sort of sauce isn't what I aim for and I think is over hyped, maybe because it triggers some nostalgia for people who grew up with that kind of mac & cheese as kids. But yep, fair enough, there's more to the world of American mac & cheese than that.

 

[Taurahe]

Yep I wasn't clear, I just meant the Velveeta/American processed cheese sort of sauce isn't what I aim for and I think is over hyped, maybe because it triggers some nostalgia for people who grew up with that kind of mac & cheese as kids. But yep, fair enough, there's more to the world of American mac & cheese than that.

That's why I asked lol. So as clarification..... I use Velveeta for a scientific reason. It contains sodium citrate which is a melting agent and emulsifying agent, so it allows cheeses that typically wont melt well to be melted and it keeps the cheese sauce stable, keeping it from both breaking and from congealing into a solid mass as it cools. That is the texture I like, so its an easy way to achieve it with out having to break out a scale and measure out sodium citrate, which I can and do from time to time. I agree though , for certain things, there is replacement for a proper mornay sauce...... its decadence is just next level. I like to use mornay in Lasanga like a heathen lol..... but damn is it freaking good

 

[Gongoozler]

I use sodium citrate and then whatever cheeses I want the flavor of for that particular dish (queso, mac and cheese, cheese sauce for various sandwiches)

 

[Dan-]

You’re all overthinking this. Since mac and cheese is kids food, our sauce is this:

1. Make some bechamel, like a liter ish. Yes this requires white roux.
2. Grate and add whatever block of cheddar/jack/gouda is in the fridge
3. Add a few slices of Murican cheese
4. Adjust salt. Use white pepper.
5. Stir into fancypants maccheroni. Recall the song WAP.

We’re told it’s almost as good as Annies boxed mac and cheese.

 

[Taurahe]

You’re all overthinking this. Since mac and cheese is kids food, our sauce is this:

1. Make some bechamel, like a liter ish. Yes this requires white roux.
2. Grate and add whatever block of cheddar/jack/gouda is in the fridge
3. Add a few slices of Murican cheese
4. Adjust salt. Use white pepper.
5. Stir into fancypants maccheroni. Recall the song WAP.

We’re told it’s almost as good as Annies boxed mac and cheese.

Korean fried chicken Mac n cheese is not for kids

 

[Michi]

I usually make a classic Mornay sauce, with a roux based Bechamel. The roux is made with half milk, half cream. What makes or breaks a Mornay sauce is the quality of the cheese. There is no need to use a processed cheese with sodium citrate. (Most of those taste pretty mediocre, anyway.)

Instead, use a good quality cheese that melts well. For example, a half-and-half mix of Red Leicester and Gruyère. (Cheddar tastes great, but is problematic because it tends to clump and separate out more easily.)

Don't skimp on the cheese, and you'll have a good cheese sauce. For spices, use salt, pepper, and a small amount of nutmeg.

 

[Jovidah]

Educated speculation here but I'm fairly sure you could also use white wine to keep cheap sauce together; it's why it shows up in a lot of cheese fondue recipes.
I'm not the biggest fan of bechamel kind of stuff since it usually dillutes the cheese flavor. Probably why I've never been particularly excited about cheese sauces even tho I'm a big cheese lover; most are a pale shadow of whatever cheese went into them, and many of them don't have good cheese in there in the first place. Probably doesn't help that the heat is likely to kill off a lot of the nuance you normally find in a good raw-milk cheese.

 

[Jovidah]

I usually make a classic Mornay sauce, with a roux based Bechamel. The roux is made with half milk, half cream. What makes or breaks a Mornay sauce is the quality of the cheese. There is no need to use a processed cheese with sodium citrate. (Most of those taste pretty mediocre, anyway.)

Instead, use a good quality cheese that melts well. For example, a half-and-half mix of Red Leicester and Gruyère. (Cheddar tastes great, but is problematic because it tends to clump and separate out more easily.)

Don't skimp on the cheese, and you'll have a good cheese sauce. For spices, use salt, pepper, and a small amount of nutmeg.

Melted cheese / gratins / sauces is actually one of the few places where I can excuse fast-fermenting cheeses (we call them 'snelrijpers', I don't know if an English word even exists for it). You get some of the taste characteristics of an older cheese while still retaining the texture and meltability of a younger one.
Alternatively, what I usually do is just mix in some parmiggiano into proper normal cheese that isn't excessively old to give it a bit more oompf (gouda, gruyere, comte, appenzeller, emmentaler, whatever, but usually gouda because swiss cheese got insanely expensive).
You could also go into soft cheese territory; I've never really tried but I can imagine something like Taleggio requires very few additions to becomes saucy while still remaining really tasty. It always works great as a melting cheese (until you take it too far and it breaks apart).

 

[Michi]

You could also go into soft cheese territory; I've never really tried but I can imagine something like Taleggio requires very few additions to becomes saucy while still remaining really tasty. It always works great as a melting cheese (until you take it too far and it breaks apart).

I've used Taleggio in the past and it works and tastes fine, no problem.

 

[MarcelNL]

wait until you discover Rasskäse ;-)

next level powerful and melts great, but keep your audience in mind, not for the faint of cheese.

 

[Beerzebub]

I have to admit that although I've made sauces from characterful cheeses and know it's the best way to go, most of the time I just use supermarket cheeses that melt well and taste good but are fairly mild and are nothing compared with Gruyere or Reblochon or something. Part of the reason is cost (imported cheese is expensive here and supermarket cheese is cheap and good), and partly it's that I'm usually making a weeknight family sort of meal and not aiming for anything gourmet and just using what I have on hand.

Tonight was one such night, my mission was to use a few small potatoes and a small bundle of asparagus we had, without going grocery shopping. I diced the potatoes and boiled them together with orecchiette, mixed that with a Mornay sauce made from a small amount of roux, milk and heaps of domestic 'Edam', baked that topped with with asparagus, sauteed shallots (and their butter) and more cheese. Nothing fancy but turned out pretty good.

 

[Michi]

Nothing fancy but turned out pretty good.

That’s real cooking. Looking around to see what’s left in the fridge and pantry, figuring out what can be done with it, and coming up with something that works and is tasty.

You actually have to know how to cook to be able to do that.

 

[Jovidah]

Yeah like the majority of my cooking is 'look in fridge and throw things together'. When people ask me for recipes I often have to make something up, or end up with a 'well there's a lot of variations but these 10 variations also work'.

IMO more cooking education should be focused on helping understand how the processes and combinations work instead of this focus on monkey-see-monkey do recipe making that don't really further understanding and are just overcomplicating matters. Especially when there are huge overlaps between most cuisines on technical level.

 

[Jovidah]

I have to admit that although I've made sauces from characterful cheeses and know it's the best way to go, most of the time I just use supermarket cheeses that melt well and taste good but are fairly mild and are nothing compared with Gruyere or Reblochon or something. Part of the reason is cost (imported cheese is expensive here and supermarket cheese is cheap and good), and partly it's that I'm usually making a weeknight family sort of meal and not aiming for anything gourmet and just using what I have on hand.

Some principles that may be of help for getting more flavorful cheese:

-Raw milk cheese is almost universally more flavorful

-Cheese made of grass-fed cows almost universally tastes better than when they're grain/fodder fed

-As a result you ideally want cheeses that are produced in that spring to autumn period... but if you don't have the production date it helps if you understand the nominal age of a cheese type you're buying. So in the autumn and winter here I'll buy a 'belegen boerenkaas' (a raw milk farmers cheese that's about 3-4 months old) because in those periods it'll be a grass cheese. But the same cheese will taste a lot flatter in the spring summer because you're eating the cheese that's produced in winter....so that's when I go for older versions of the same cheese that have a 1 year ripening time.

-One caveat is that cheeses produced on really hot summer days have a bit of a risk of becoming defective (bitter), but this isn't something too commonly found.

-Age almost universally helps all cheeses... if a cheese is too young even something like a Reblochon will be bland. Soft rind cheeses like Reblochon, Tallegio, Brie, Camembert, etc will get softer as they get older/better. Whereas non-moldy style cheeses like Gouda and Parmiggiano tend to dry out and therefore get more solid - and you'll start to see more glutamate crystals.

 

[Vertigo]

Korean fried chicken Mac n cheese is not for kids

I donno, sounds pretty elementary.

 

[Beerzebub]

As a result you ideally want cheeses that are produced in that spring to autumn period

That is a great reminder, thanks! I've paid attention to season when buying imported cheese but have let that slip with the everyday domestic stuff and it's probably getting into the Winter-produced cheeses for the younger types now. The NZ supermarket cheeses can be good but mostly are not, so paying attention to season could help. Thankfully pretty much the whole dairy industry here is pasture-based, 'grass-fed' isn't even on labels, but season certainly matters and I'll pay closer attention.

 

[Jovidah]

Yeah butter is a similar product that can actually have seasonal variation if it's a high quality butter (IIRC spring butter is best because even if its grass fed supposedly the new grass in spring gives the best butter). But we're not really accustomed to think of it like that, especially with much these days being standardized pasteurized bland crap.

 

[Beerzebub]

So I just tried to put some raw milk raclette into a cheese sauce, and my wife not only vetoed it but made me double bag the cheese before putting it back in the fridge so she would never smell it again.

 

[Michi]

So I just tried to put some raw milk raclette into a cheese sauce, and my wife not only vetoed it but made me double bag the cheese before putting it back in the fridge so she would never smell it again.

Please send her for a thorough mental health examination. This could be a sign of something really serious!

 

[bsfsu]

Besciamella al formaggio

 

[Dragon_Stone]

I’ve had lots of compliments using Martha Stewart Mac n cheese recipe which I use every year for Thanksgiving. Technique wise it’s your standard make bechamel sauce. The fun twist is adding higher quality cheddar cheese mixed with some smoked Gouda, not over cooking pasta, don’t over or under salt, finishing in the oven to get crispy but not burnt top. Getting all these small details right while cooking other dishes is the tricky part. Easy while rushing or distracted to get things wrong. That’s the fun of the holidays. Mac n cheese when done right compliments most any main dish (roast, turkey, ham or veggies). Just take into account box Mac n cheese takes like 7 minutes for a few dollars making it from scratch can take 1hr and cost $20 with quality cheese.

 

[Dan-]

Can’t edit my post anymore, but tonight we modified the kids’ Mac and cheese by removing the Murican and adding a couple broccoli crowns and a 1/2” slice of home-cured pancetta diced that we rendered separately and added with the broccoli. Really elevated it to much better than Annie’s.

 

[panda]

just 2 ingredients: heavy cream & American cheese makes the best sauce for mac n chz.

preferred pasta: lumachine