to not understand the appeal of bread sauce

[coffeelover3]

Just find it weird to put wet bread on your lovely roast dinner...???!!!!

I have a feeling that it might go back to years ago when it was used to 'bulk up' meals with leftover bread... or am I wrong...

I always make my own and it has bay, nutmeg, cloves, it's delicious

Oh yes but if you are a heathen who has only tried bread sauce from a packet I completely understand why you think it's horrible. Nothing says Christmas to me like a clove spotted onion soaking in a saucepan of milk.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I asked this last night, but all the people who hate bread sauce were too busy saying Boak and posting to answer. So here goes again.

I love bread sauce. People who think it's gross, do you think that about white sauce, bechamel, cheese sauce etc, which are very similar? Milk thickened with flour, or milk thickened with bread, made from flour.

Genuine question. Every single year on MN when this subject comes up people object to the appearance of bread sauce, when to me it looks very like bechamel, and has a very similar taste and mouthfeel. Given how many people will be having cauliflower cheese with their Christmas dinner, why is that OK and bread sauce isn't?

I didn't grow up with bread sauce and had neve had it until a few years ago when I thought I'd give it a go. It's very easy to make. My daughter and I love it now, so I make it every year. As others have said, it's excellent in sandwiches.

For a start, I don't eat a lot of dairy, so that colours my hatred of the stuff. I find the texture a lot more slippery than bechamel - almost slimy - and I've only ever had home made stuff, made with good bread.

Thanks, @PickAChew. Textural things can be tricky to get past, I know.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Bread sauce is heavier and claggier to me. Texture is different I’m not a huge fan of bechamel/cheese sauce etc, but a well made, nicely textured light one, can be ok in the right context.

A lot of whether the context is right is about which food it is alongside, particularly their textures. So for me, lasagne, cauliflower cheese is ok, but haddock moray or fish at is just hideous. And turkey with bread sauce is more like fish in cheese sauce than it is like macaroni cheese or lasagne or cauliflower cheese. It’s the contrast of a more solid tranche of a protein food alongside a claggy sauce that is bad. When the accompanying food is softer snd kind of melds more with the sauce (particularly by being baked together) it’s more tolerable, but probably would be neither a frequent
nor a favourite choice.

And then there the issue of lumps. Bread sauce, lumpy white sauce, lumpy custard. Ick. This is especially relevant as you used the word “Mouthfeel” in connection with bread sauce. So, boak.

@EnPoinsettia, thanks, that's interesting. I have no issues at all with lumpy food, so that probably explains something. I'm guessing you probably don't like rice pudding either. I adore it. Although there's almost nothing I won't eat, to be honest.

I just love bread sauce! It's so easy to make and way better than packet or bought stuff. I stud a shallot with cloves and leave to soak in a pan of milk for a while, then bring it to the boil, add breadcrumbs to give good consistency (not too thick as it thickens as it cools). Leave to infuse for an hour or two and then heat again, then remove shallot and season as you wish or add nutmeg. Add cream for a special occasion and warm through! Delicious! Please try it if you have never made it before, oh and they must be proper breadcrumbs, not pieces from a sliced loaf. Waitrose sell packs of fresh breadcrumbs.

@EnPoinsettia - isn't it funny, I cannot stand lasagne or any other pasta, but love haddock mornay!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Baked rice pudding that’s gone quite dry is fine. Tinned or stovetop is hideous. As @PickAChew said, it’s also the slime factor. Lumpy slimey yum yum.

Absolutely revolting!

Bread sauce comes in a packet? Flat packed? Eh?

YABU to think it's about 'seeing the appeal' of a food. You try a food. You like it or you don't like it. It is normal for people to have different opinions about foods.

Those saying it's bland (or asking if it's bland, having not eaten it) - it's no more bland than lots of other things which need to be well-seasoned or to be eaten with other things - bechamel sauce, mashed potato, rice, pasta etc.

I've never had it & hate bread pudding so it really doesn't appeal. I always thought it was something to hide the dryness of turkey?

It beare no relation to bread pudding. Turkey isn't dry if you cook it properly, plus there's gravy, which would make things a lot 'wetter' than bread sauce would.

Do you like fish pie too @MagicSummer? That’s my idea of food hell. Especially if it has cheese & breadcrumbs on top of the potatoes. Or smoked haddock with a poached egg.

Any softish, squishy protein, slimey sauce, possibly also crunchy bits just a screams rotten/putrefaction to me. It’s definitely about triggering a response that food is off in some way. Like textural equivalent of seeing mould.

Love love love bread sauce. The best part of xmas dinner. It has to be homemade, My husband doesn't share the love, but my son loves it as much as me. Cannot wait.

@ClinkyMonkey

I'm pretty sure it's not a thing in NI, unless I'm missing something. Now I want to try it and see where I stand in the debate!

That's where I'm from too, and I agree, never heard of it here.

Wouldn't mind trying it though.

It's amazing but I don't know why anyone would bother buying it in a packet, it's so easy to make!

Yes @EnPoinsettia - I do like fish pie! But I do agree with you about texture being the thing, that's why I hate pasta - nasty slimy stuff. Also detest avocado, eggs in any shape or form except cooked in a cake or other dish, oysters and scallops and soup with chunky bits in it!

I love it, I had it with a roast chicken dinner the other day, my pile of bread sauce was equal in quantity to my pile of mash!

I've never tried it.