Could This Be The Secret To A Smooth Cheese Sauce?

[OhioTom76]

I have to say, after reading through this article, I am tempted to give this recipe a shot today:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives...cheese-sauce-for-burgers-fries-and-chips.html

One of the things I really enjoy about Serious Eats is that many of their writers go into very fine detail over the chemistry of food and recipe ingredients very similar to Alton Brown's show.

This recipe in particular basically suggests to use evaporated milk and a little corn starch along with your shredded cheese and some hot sauce. I've made cheese sauce in the past with just milk and corn starch, and it was okay, but somewhat bland - I think the milk diluted the cheese too much, which is why I'm thinking the evaporated milk may work out better.

 

[Jessi]

I actually really like using evaporated milk for sauces. I used to make one that used mostly paprika for flavor and was great for dipping.

I've never mixed it with actual shredded cheese, but I imagine it would work out awesome. The hot sauce would add a little extra kick.

The thing is....I don't really use cheese sauce for anything any more. I don't put it on fries or burgers like this, so I'm not sure what I'd even use it for.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

...

The thing is....I don't really use cheese sauce for anything any more. I don't put it on fries or burgers like this, so I'm not sure what I'd even use it for.

cauliflower cheese, my veg lasagne uses cheese sauce in it, macaroni cheese, broccoli cheese (same as cauli cheese)... to name a few ideas

 

[Jessi]

cauliflower cheese, my veg lasagne uses cheese sauce in it, macaroni cheese, broccoli cheese (same as cauli cheese)... to name a few ideas

Hmm, I had forgotten about broccoli and cheese. I don't really use cheese sauce for the others you mentioned (at least not like this), but broccoli/cheese is a good one!

When I see a picture like this:

I definitely didn't associate it with veggies, lol. The sauce is definitely much thinner than what I normally make, but maybe that's a good thing.

 

[OhioTom76]

Ok, so I did get around to making this recipe and... not really crazy about it.

The sauce did in fact come out smooth, with none of the cheese separating on me, which was a good thing. But it didn't have the same mouth feel as the cheese sauce you get from a jar. In fact, I had a jar of Tostito's brand cheese sauce in the fridge to compare the two when I made it, and the store bought stuff was still much smoother. It was almost like an oily mouth feel (even though the Tostitos stuff was really low in fat), whereas this recipe was more of a wallpaper paste mouth feel. The sauce did also thicken up a lot when I put it in the fridge, almost like a set pudding, but it quickly loosened back up when reheated in the microwave.

Flavor wise is where I really had a problem. The condensed milk simply dilutes the cheese flavor too much. I suspect that's why they called for the addition of hot sauce, to bring some of the zing back. But what you end up with is a concoction that tastes like condensed milk and hot sauce with a little cheese - not a tangy cheese sauce. The color was nothing like the picture above, it was a pale peachy color. I would love to figure out how they get such concentrated cheese flavor in the store bought variety. There has got to be a way to do that at home.