RSSAsk Dawn
May 20th, 2007 by Dawn, Co-founder of Rouxbe
It’s time for this week’s Ask Dawn column, where the Hands of Rouxbe answers reader mail!
Mike in Houston asks,
“Dear Dawn: HELP! My Mornay sauce is unreliable. Sometimes it turns out smooth and cheesy, but more often than not it gets very grainy and almost a gritty feel to it. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong!
Basically, I make a roux by melting 2 Tbsp butter and stirring in 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour. I’ll let that cook for a minute or two and add 2 cups of milk – have tried both whole and 2%. Bring that up to a boil, let it cook and thicken for about five minutes, then pull off the heat and slowly stir or whisk in 3-4 oz. of shredded Cheddar cheese. (Kraft Sharp cheddar – hey, I live in the ‘burbs – and I realize that Swiss is more classic.) Somewhere in this process is when it seems to break down and form a grainy texture.
What can I do to save it?”
Well Mike in Houston! Here are a few of my tips, that will hopefully help you out. First thing, try cooking your roux for about 5 minutes, over medium-low heat. Cook it until it turns a light blond color, or until you start to smell it’s wonderful nutty aroma. Now turn the heat down to low and try adding the milk in two batches. Also be sure you are just scalding the milk, in other words, don’t let the sauce boil. Keep it to a simmer, stirring constantly and let it cook. Also Mike, let your béchamel cook a bit longer, up to 15 minutes even, to cook out the flour taste. This also helps give the starch molecules time to grab onto all of the liquid.
Really though I think your Béchamel might not be the problem. I think perhaps it is the cheese you are using. If the cheese is already pre-grated, it may not work. This has happened to me in the past, so I recommend grating your own cheese. Also aged cheeses have a higher acid content, and acid makes cheese curdle. So try using a younger or milder cheese, which contains less acid.
Make sure you are adding your cheese (off the heat) in batches. Whisking between each addition, until each batch is completely melted. But don’t beat it, just whisk it. Adding all of the cheese at once has a tendency to overwhelm the béchamel and it sort of comes undone. They need time to get to know each other, you can’t just force them onto each other and expect them to get along. Okay maybe a bit dramatic, I know. But really you need a bit of patience with cheese sauce.
Well Mike From Houston! I hope this was helpful for you. Please do let me know. I myself do not make a ton of cheese sauces…only because I would drink them. I love cheese and I love sauce, so you can only imagine how that would go for me. Oh! my how I love the cheese sauce. But I will figure this out with you, I promise!
It’s problems like these that remind me of why I love cooking, because there is never a dull moment. There is always something to learn from food!
Good Luck Mike,
Happy Fromage-ing
dawn
Dawn,
I had to laugh when I saw this up on the list of most popular posts. I hope it’s helped!
Before I hit you with another question, a quick follow-up: I’ve had more success with my Mornay after reading your answer. I do freshly grate cheese for my sauces (and almost anything else I do). However, I suspect part of my problem was adding cheese too quickly to a base that was still too hot. I’ve had better luck pulling the base off the heat, waiting a minute, and then adding the cheese in small batches. Thanks again!
Now, let’s turn to technique – as important if not more so than a good recipe, and part of the reason I love the drill-down feature so much. Specifically, dice or brunoise of round root vegetables – like a carrot. I understand the basic principle of cutting the vegetable into planks, then matchsticks, then into cubes. However, it starts with a round vegetable. How do you manage to take off enough to square the sides without sacrificing half of the veg to the stock gods? (If that can be called a sacrifice. But I digress.) Same for potatoes, too – if I want a nice hash of cubed potatoes, how do I deal with the very irregular shape?
Thanks again for all you guys do,
– Mike
Well Hi Mike!
Nice to hear from you. When it comes to skill and technique, you are in luck! Things are very exciting here at Rouxbe with our partnership with NWCAV (the cooking school).
We could not have picked better partners if we tried. And together we are going to give you all the skill and technique behind the recipes.
You will basically be going to cooking school from your very own kitchen, at your own pace.
http://blog.rouxbe.com/ready-for-the-world%e2%80%99s-first-online-video-based-cooking-school/
As for the brunoise and julienne…there is some sacrifice involved with those sexy little cuts. There is simply no way around it. You can save the scraps for making pureed soups or eat them as you go but you will have them no matter what. The better your brunoise the more scraps you will have. If you try to avoid the scraps and cut less off you will end up with some brunoise that are not perfectly square.
And don’t even get me started about the waste you get when you turn vegetables…Ah! The sacrifices we make!
Hope that answers your question Mike.
Have a super day.
dawn