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Broken Cheese Sauce


jende

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I just made a batch of green chile macaroni and cheese, and my sauce broke (I think the milk was too hot when I added the cheese). I have a lot of money in ingredients in that pot, so does anyone know how I might salvage it?

I've been whisking like mad and that seems to help a little, but not enough.

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I would let it cool a bit and then put it in the blender.  It always seems to work with lumpy gravy.  Good luck.

Yeah, I might have to give that a try, but it's kind of a last resort since I've got sliced chiles and corn in the sauce and I don't want to puree them.

It's my own stupid fault -- I knew the milk was too hot but I was in such a hurry. Now I've got stringy sauce!!

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I would let it cool a bit and then put it in the blender.  It always seems to work with lumpy gravy.  Good luck.

Yeah, I might have to give that a try, but it's kind of a last resort since I've got sliced chiles and corn in the sauce and I don't want to puree them.

It's my own stupid fault -- I knew the milk was too hot but I was in such a hurry. Now I've got stringy sauce!!

Do you have any more chiles to add after you blend it? I think it's the only way to recover. Add a little more milk or cream when you blend. I think the stringy cheese is a bigger problem than pureed chiles and corn. It will taste just as great. Good luck!

Let us know what happens, k?

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Strain the sauce and reserve the chilis. Cool the sauce a bit (it doesn't have to be cold), and blend it in a blender with a medium boiled egg or two depending on how much sauce you have. I would begin with a little of the sauce first and then add the rest slowly. Be carefull to no over blend the sauce or it will break again. You can then add the chilis back to the sauce and gently warm it (not boil).

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Thanks to everyone who replied.

I ended up adding a little more milk and taking my immersion blender to it. That seemed to help a lot. The texture still isn't perfect, but I do like the thickness and flavor added by the pureed corn (have we stumbled upon a way to add richness to a low fat mac and cheese?!).

I did add some extra whole corn for texture. No extra chiles, but they're quite spicy so pureeing them into the sauce may end up being a good idea so you don't get a whole strip in your mouth.

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This won't help for today but you might try using canned evaporated milk next time (I'm not talking about sweetened condensed milk. Just something that is evaporated milk.) It's got a slightly thicker texture than milk and I started using it for mac & cheese when I began using a Cook's Illustrated recipe that I really don't follow very closely anymore but I always use the canned evaporated milk nowadays. It doesn't curdle as easily but I do use eggs so if I'm not careful, the sauce does break.

jayne

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