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:

Saute onions, garlic, sage in butter/oil (4 tbsp butter, 1tbsp EVOO)
Mix with cubed, peeled butturnut squash (about 6 cups)

Melt 4 tbsp butter
Add 4 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp sage (dried crushed)
Stir around till cooked
Slowly wisk in 3.5 cups whole milk
let it thicken for a bit
wisk in shredded cheese (elmentar and gruyere)

Mix sauce with other ingredients and bake at 350 for 1 hour.


The sauce was nice and thick when I made it, howerver, I was in
a bit of a hurry due to starting late, so I didn't let the
bechamel base thicken as much as I usually do before adding the cheese.
Could this be the casue of the problem? Or do certain cheeses just
not work well as sauces? Any hints welcome.

Tnx and Happy New Years!
~Deepak
--
Deepak Saxena -

"Deepak Saxena" > wrote in message
...
>
> 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:
>
> Saute onions, garlic, sage in butter/oil (4 tbsp butter, 1tbsp EVOO)
> Mix with cubed, peeled butturnut squash (about 6 cups)
>
> Melt 4 tbsp butter
> Add 4 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp sage (dried crushed)
> Stir around till cooked
> Slowly wisk in 3.5 cups whole milk
> let it thicken for a bit
> wisk in shredded cheese (elmentar and gruyere)
>
> Mix sauce with other ingredients and bake at 350 for 1 hour.
>
>
> The sauce was nice and thick when I made it, howerver, I was in
> a bit of a hurry due to starting late, so I didn't let the
> bechamel base thicken as much as I usually do before adding the cheese.
> Could this be the casue of the problem? Or do certain cheeses just
> not work well as sauces? Any hints welcome.
>
> Tnx and Happy New Years!
> ~Deepak
> --
> Deepak Saxena -

I tried something very similar for a Mexican style baked chicken, and my
cheese sauce also broke. Now I realize that the problem was that I baked
the cheese sauce. If a sauce of this type (sauces with emulsions of
fats -i.e. cheese and butter- and water) are heated above boiling after
being emulsified, they will break. Next time, try using a mornay (I'm not
sure how a mornay is diffeent from the cheese sauce you described, but i
know you can bake a mornay) or try pouring the sauce over the gratin after
baking.

I hope this helps,
Adam

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.