FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Butternut gratin...sauce decided to curdle :(

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 18:02:49 +0000 (UTC),
(Deepak Saxena) wrote:

>
>Made a butternut squash gratin/casserole for new years dinner and
>while it tasted good and everyone seemed to enjoy it, I was personally
>very dissapointed b/c my cheese sauce ended up turning into lumps
>of cheese and a lot of grease. After it set for a bit, I sucked up a
>bunch of the grease with paper towels. So the question is..what did
>I do wrong. Procedure follows:

<snipped>

I wish more people had commented. My *guess* is that bechamel/mornay
sauces don't lend themselves to long cooking once they're done. I
haven't had this problem with sauces blended into/poured on top of
other stuff and briefly baked. As in crepes. To remedy, I would
*guess* that the proportion of fat (and liquid) to starch was
unbalanced. 1hr cooking of a moisture-rich veg may unbalance the
sauce, too. I would cook the veg mixture longer to blow off some
water, and the whole-thing-with-sauce a shorter time.