not so good eats mac and cheese

[redrhodie]

I just consulted with my chef boyfriend, and he's wondering if you put hot milk into the roux? Cold milk would cause the problem you describe.

The cheeses shouldn't make a difference. He also suggested sauteeing the mushrooms separately and adding them at the end, before baking.

[papaver]

I just consulted with my chef boyfriend, and he's wondering if you put hot milk into the roux? Cold milk would cause the problem you describe.

The cheeses shouldn't make a difference. He also suggested sauteeing the mushrooms separately and adding them at the end, before baking.

Your chef bf is right.

[Zen]

I just made a big ol' pot of mac and cheese using the recipe from the back of the Muellers macaroni box.
Flour (wondra)
salt
pepper
powdered mustard
butter
cheddar cheese
used cold milk and mine came out fine

[redrhodie]

I just made a big ol' pot of mac and cheese using the recipe from the back of the Muellers macaroni box.
Flour (wondra)
salt
pepper
powdered mustard
butter
cheddar cheese
used cold milk and mine came out fine

I just found a link to the recipe on the box, and it looks like that recipe doesn't have equal amounts of flour and butter. Maybe that's the difference?

Then I looked up Wondra, and it sounds like it's especially good for thickening sauces, so maybe that's another reason it worked.

Good question for Alton Brown!

[Zen]

I don't pay much attention to precise measuring methods

[smilingcat]

Yes the 'shrooms need to be sauteed first. But mid way through, I realized I didn't have enough so I just chopped extra like twice as much and just threw it in. there is my first mistake.

I added the 'shrooms after the sauce was nearly finished and realized not enough 'shrooms. Thus the start of the problem. not enough. Ooops. rush and chop mushroom (what ever happened to Mis en Place? Redrhodie, your BF would know that.) and then I threw the mushroom in without cooking. mistake number two. So got a cook the mushroom in the sauce. mistake number three. overcooked the sauce.

Oh just remembered, the milk I used was non-fat milk. why bother when the roux has all that butter. Well I wasn't going out shopping just for the milk. Thus yet another mistake. regular whole milk has 4% fat. 2% milk has half the fat of regular milk... Just FYI.

When I cook, any Bechamel based sauce, milk starts warm. Other wise you get in all sorts of problem. Another cause of cheese to ball up is if you cook it too long. The protein tightens up and forces all the liquid to come out and the remaining protein just coagulates. Both happened. Bad me. Oh same happens to cooking egg. Always remove the eggs from the skillet before its completely done. Cause when its served, it will be overdone.

I'm sort of amused at myself with all the mistakes I made. And I'm always practicing my mis en place so never rush. Practicing mis en place will make your cooking more enjoyable because you wont be rushed and panicked. Also keep your knives razor sharp.

Sgtier, like your idea of "does not have to be orange in color" for the sauce.

Have to think about the proportion of butter to flour for bechamel sauce... I just go by feel and looks.

I hope you are all amused, I sure am...

But I'M STILL FIRED!!

[shootingstar]

My partner is better at a bechamel sauce or ..similar. It's part of his birth cultural cooking DNA. (German). He doesn't do it often and we rarely buy butter for home cooking. It tends to be for special occasion meals at home and it is lovely with the right type of entrees. Or any butter based sauce.

I must admit I haven't made myself learn to do a proper bechamel sauce simply because I'm afraid I will have to double the amount of cycling if we had bechamel sauce dishes more often.

But obviously it works for you, smilingcat.