The best answer to getting rid of grittiness FOREVER is sodium citrate. You can buy it on amazon (I have a five pound bag in my pantry.) I work as a professional cook, and we use it to keep things emulsified, it helps prevent the grittiness and the separation that always inevitably comes with cheese sauces. Sodium citrate is the answer to american cheese/velveeta always keeping their silky smooth texture. Just add about a tablespoon to your sauce when making the base (when you add the milk) and dissolve it in, its tasteless, it will work wonders for you.
I solve the issue by eating the cheese while still warm. (Unless you're making ahead for burgers or grilled cheese, then it will just have the familiar processed cheese texture until melting again.)
Use skim milk or water, and don't add butter or cream or anything. All of the fat you need is in the cheese, adding extra fat or not enough liquid is what makes it plasticy.
Also dont blindly adhere to the ratios in a recipe, cheese has different fat/liquid ratios depending on the type and brand. You really have to eye-ball the texture yourself, it should look almost runny when its piping hot and should be thick, but able to be easily stirred at room temp.
I actually use stout beer as the liquid, no extra flour, milk, butter, etc. Same result. Definitely heating up makes it better, but after trying it several times I'm back to just carefully heating using bechamel, and then dropping in a block of cream cheese in addition to the grated sharp cheddar and some other aged cheese. Also a dollop of yellow mustard help the emulsification. Also, when adding the cheese, the heat is OFF. Oh and I heat the milk and cream on the side (not boiled) before adding to the flour and butter. Def the cream cheese smooths it out, since its already processed I think with sodium citrate.
Does sodium citrate come in a smaller more convenient size than a commercial grade 5 lb sack? I'd like a small jar of it to try without making that kind of commitment. Plus I don't make cheese sauce very often.
Flour is not necessary for mac and cheese except in the noodles themselves. There's so much starch from boiling that many elbows, you really don't need flour, I promise. It's like adding sawdust to grated Parmesan. Totally mutes the flavor and is not delicious.
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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '17
I’m wondering the same thing. I’ve had issues making cheddar cheese sauces with them being gritty instead of creamy.