Cheese sauce disaster

[PinkDaydreams]

Hello!

Trying to make an easy cheese sauce using the linked recipe but it’s gone wrong?! Please help! It’s split and just won’t thicken. I’m hopeless at cooking so thought this would be simple but obviously not.

www.stayathomemum.co.uk/recipes/microwave-cheese-sauce/

I’ve never made cheese sauce in the microwave, I do it on the hob. It’s really easy to do, maybe try that instead? In terms of thickening I add more flour but like I say, that’s not in the microwave so not sure if it would work.

Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong then, do it on the hob. I was after quick so I can make it easily for my little one, I thought micro would be easier and quicker than the job but it’s stressed me out so much and there’s cheese sick (it overflowed out the jug) all over the microwave and the kitchen now stinks!!

It's difficult without having tried it. Have you used butter or margarine? Full fat or skimmed milk? Have you checked your quantities? How big a cup?

The instructions are not very detailed. I wonder whether you need to repeat the microwave/whisk cycle a few times.

I find it easier to do it on the hob. I combine equal quantities (50g works for me) of melted butter and flour into a paste, cook it out in the pan for a minute. Off the heat, add milk very slowly while stirring to avoid lumps until it's all in and then heat it in a pan for 5 mins until it's thickened and cooked through. Then add the cheese at the end.

Microwave sounds all a bit guesswork to me.

I lob some milk in a pan, a dollop of butter, same sized dollop of plain flour, whisk while heating. Once it’s boiling let it cook for a couple of minutes, remove from heat and add cheese, mustard powder, salt and pepper.

Do not boil once cheese is added, that makes it split.

Oh that’s where I’ve definately gone wrong, it was bubbling away boiling which has caused it to split. I didn’t add the cheese at the end, stupid me!!

I’ve just checked the flour and it’s SR, will that make a difference?

This method works (pinched off here years ago so sorry to that person for not mentioning them)

Start with a Pyrex jug/bowl that can go in the microwave. It needs to
be quite big (0.5 litre is fine) as the sauce may rise in the jug as
it cooks.

300ml milk (put this in first)
25g flour
25g butter

Give it a very quick whisk before you start.

Then 1 minute in the microwave on high, whisk and put back in.

Repeat that step until it's had 4 minutes in the microwave in total -
at that point, it will have thickened.

Then stir in 50g of grated cheese

.even easier cheese sauce,mix a tablespoon of cornflour to a paste with cold water and a little mustard powder salt and pepper, bring saucepan of milk to the boil and add cornflour mix stirring well until it thickens, turn off heat, add grated cheese and stir easy peasy cheese sauce.

It's so quick on the job I can't see how doing it in the microwave saves any time. I'd find it a real faff keep opening the door to see if it was ok and hadn't exploded.

^ it takes 4 minutes

Actually I do now do it on the hob as our microwave blew up but when I was learning how to cook I found that method quick and simple. Because it is. It takes 4 minutes. Our hob takes about that just to heat up

I’ve just checked the flour and it’s SR, will that make a difference?

Well SR flour makes things rise, so might explain why it overflowed!

Make a roux, add warm milk, then once thickened add seasoning and cheese. Whole process takes 15-30mins on the hob depending on quantities of sauce. Why would you need to use a microwave?

Actually making it hot up to boiling then cooking won't take much different a time in micro compared to hob, and as said there is a lot of door opening for the micro but an 'upside' is less chance of burning it to the pan. It makes you concentrate on the job in hand rather than multitasking where you forget and boil it over/burn.
Putting the cheese in and continuing to heat will make the fat separate.

@1tisILeClerc - you shouldn’t be leaving white / cheese sauce by itself anyway. Needs to be stirred.

**hob not job

Whole process takes 15-30mins on the hob depending on quantities of sauce 15 mins?! That's ages. Mind you I suppose it depends on how fast your hob heats.

If you’re really not good at cooking (not saying that you aren’t but sometimes even easy recipes can be frustrating) you could try super simple. On a medium hob combine butter, cream and Parmesan. You don’t need to worry about removing from the heat at specific points before adding cheese or anything like that. Just make sure it’s not too hot and keep stirring. It’ll thicken up nicely and you can add as much cheese as you like to taste.

And you don't need to grate the cheese if you do it on the job,just cube it and stir in,even quicker.

I found my white sauces were splitting even using the hob and cooking gently. The trick I found is to make the roux, let it cook for one minute, then take it off the hob and whisk in a small amount of the milk off the heat (must use a whisk not a spoon). Once that’s all mixed in ok add the rest of the milk and then it can go back on the hob and be stirred, then add seasonings, cheese etc once thickened. Never fails!

I do as Pascha does, but don't cook the paste for a minute, just add the milk slowly once the flour/ butter is a paste. You have to sir to avoid lumps.

@DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen - I usually cook for 5-20 so it’s a fair bit of white sauce I’m making on medium heat. But yeah if you’re only making a little it shouldn’t that long.

Thank you all so much for your advice, sorry for delayed reply, it’s been a busy afternoon of food shopping and house cleaning.
I’m going to try again but on the hub this time, and I’ll also add the cheese slowly and near to the end I’m glad I posted now! I felt embarrassed 🙄