not so good eats mac and cheese

[smilingcat]

Had a hunkering for a good mac and cheese.

How hard can it be?? simple Mornay sauce and pasta right?? Bechamel sauce with cheese... I've made it hundreds of times before. Lately, I've been in a cooking funk or sort. Cooked beans and never softened up. and to broken sauce. These sort of things are not supposed to happen to me.

sauce for mac and cheese:

butter
flour
minced shallots
minced garlic
chopped up mushroom
milk
gruyer (sp)
cheddar
blue cheese

part of the problem I think is non-fat milk and I decided not enough shroom in the sauce so I added more after the sauce came to a nice velvetty consistency. As the shroom cooked in the sauce it released too much liquid and caused the cheese to ball up.

why the three kinds of cheese. First one melts really well, cheddar cause mac and cheese supposed to be orangish color, besides its not real mac and cheese if you don't use cheddar. And blue cheese? well it gives that yummyness that you can't get from just plain mustard and other seasoning. The blue cheese give the sauce its depth. mustard not needed. Trust me blue cheese makes far superior sauce.

Taste of the sauce was good. just bad consistency.

I think I'm going to bake the mess and eat it up for b'fast before I'm fully awake.

Oh another mishap. buttermilk pan-cake. It ended up flat about two weeks ago...

I'M FIRED!!

[shootingstar]

Well at least you can make a better mac and cheese from scratch than I ever could. Would grainy Dijon mustard be abit better than plain mustard? It was Kraft version..um 25 yrs. ago and I would justify the cheap, lazy purchase by sauteeing diced carrots, onions, garlic before doing the rest of the cooked macaroni and cheese dump into pot.

Just wolfed down 4 shrimp har gow (a sort dim sum) from Chinatown. Sort of thing I consider a "treat" once every 1-2 wks.

Tonight will be light veggie and fresh water chestnut stir-fry with some squid and noodles. For reasons unclear to me, I seldom buy squid (or the more elegant noun, calamari) to make a meal. Seem to do this uh..every 2-3 yrs.

[sgtiger]

You sound like you're more than a capable cook in the kitchen, so try not to beat yourself up. We all have our off days, Smilingcat. In fact, I can't count how many times you've had me drooling. No worries or need to fire yourself. Maybe it's time for a short cooking break?

The mushrooms in the sauce sound like a nice addition. How about giving the mushrooms a quick saute and adding them to the sauce after it's done next time? I agree that blue cheese gives the sauce more depth, but I still have added powered mustard and paprika or ceyenne with it. Maybe I'll try leaving it out next time. And I never thought about using gruyere. I usually use Colby or Monterrey Jack cheese for the creamy consistency. I'll have to try it, though: it sounds good. Also, forget about the orange color. I do use cheddar, usually aged extra sharp, for the flavor and tang it adds, but I get the kind with no added food coloring. It takes a while for people to get used to, especially if they've been raised on the boxed stuff (Don't get me wrong, with kids and the convenience factor, I still keep some in the house. ) ; but the taste more than makes up for it.

[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.