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ORIGINAL: aravain

they also come with many (most?) complete measuring  sets, even cheap ones (like $2 for a full set from 1/4th tsp to 1tbsp)

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ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

Yes, with all the ado about world events, politics, the economy, ethical and moral issues, I thought I would bring up something important.

Cheese food has always tasted like wax or something to me, but more recently I have gone into a slightly better class of cheese. Can't stand Velveeta, even though not listed as cheese food it reminds me of those individually wrapped slices I used to hate. It was easy to make a cheese sauce though, just put a little water in the pan and mix-n-melt. Add milk, butter, whatever and pour it over whatever you want.

Now to me the $8-12/lb. is the cheap stuff. The flavor is much better of course but I am having a bit of a hard time melting it. It acts sort of like Swiss cheee, which I have never been able to melt satisfactorily. I gave up on using it for melting, at least into any kind of sauce.

It all seems to clump up, it will not mix well, and it does need some water to thin it just a bit. Or something else ?

The cheese is different, but I also use less of it because of an avoidance of carbs, mac-n-cheese, potatoes Au Gratin and things of that nature are very rare for me. Hovever there are a few dishes I would like to have a nice creamy cheese sauce for. For example brocolli, and of course the stuffed chicken breast with cheese and brocolli. Certain mexican type dishes also are a hit, one of which my sister and I sort of re-invented.

Whatever methodology or ingredients must be healthy though, if I am not going to cook healthy I'll eat out or order out. I don't cook as much as I'd like to, perhaps because of later hours at work. When I do cook though, I would like for things to come out right.

So to melt sharp (possibly "hard" type) cheddar, colby, not to mention Swiss, there must be something I'm missing. It used to work with the "waxy kid's stuff" but I simply don't like that anymore.

Also while I want to thin the viscoity of the cheese to make sauce, I do not want to dilute the flavor. That's why I don't think alot of milk is a good idea, if fact in the old days (with the cheap stuff) I found that milk did more to thin the flavor than the viscosity. I want as full flavor as I can get, while it does not become rock hard by the time it hits the table, or need to be piping hot and cause burns.

I also would like to avoid the use of thickening agents like flour. I would prefer cheese sauce over sauce with cheese in it.

Thanks for any help on this matter. People around me consider me a pretty good cook, but I do fall down on a couple of things. I don't even want to think about seperating egg yolks. I swear (fuck shit piss damn) I can't get three unbroken yolks in a row unless I am making an omelet. Let's just let that subject ride for now......... cheese first please.

T

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ORIGINAL: Termyn8or


Really if you are good enough to be able to use romano cheese in a sauce I would love to hear just how that's done. Anytime I've tried it comes out wax and grease basically.

T