Yes, you can flavour it with garlic, herbs, spices and other things, but the cheese is the main flavouring. That said, even if you made the finest-looking cheese sauce, it can still taste bland. The sauce only needs to be hot enough to melt the grated cheese, which you should stir in gradually until just melted and incorporated into the sauce.ĭo not add the cheese to the sauce while is still sitting over the heat, as that can cause the cheese to overcook, start to separate and turn your sauce into an oily-surfaced, curdled-looking mess. If it’s really hot, let it cool a few minutes. When your white sauce is ready, remove it from the heat. It’s that overcooking that can cause the sauce to curdle. Cubes of cheese, on the other hand, will take longer to melt, so your sauce can overcook before the cheese has melted. Grated cheese will melt in the sauce quickly and evenly.

Sauces for macaroni and cheese usually require a hard cheese, such as cheddar. How and when you add the cheese is critical to making a smooth sauce. Once you’ve added the milk and gently simmered and thickened the white sauce, it’s time to add the cheese. If you add the milk too quickly, use cold milk or simply don’t whisk fast enough, you could get lumps in your sauce as bits of roux will cook and turn into small balls before they’ve had a chance to be smoothly blended into the milk. Warm milk is slowly incorporated into the roux, creating a smooth mixture. For a white sauce, you do not let the roux darken, as you would for a brown sauce or gravy. You cook the roux a short while to get the raw flour taste out of it. To make the white sauce, you start by making roux, a mixture made by cooking in a saucepan a combination of flour and butter or other fat. To review, cheese sauce is simply white sauce, also called béchamel, that has been flavoured with cheese.

But I hope the following advice will ensure smooth sailing, or should I say smooth saucing, the next time you make it. Jewel Townsendĭear Jewel: I wish you had contacted me sooner, because that’s a long time to be having your cheese sauce curdling. Dear Eric: Please help! I am almost 80 years old and my cheese sauce always curdles when I make macaroni and cheese.

How to make a cheese sauce for mac