How long a cheese has matured, its acidity, the amount of fat and moisture it contains, and how it was made all have an impact on its structure. Cheese with tighter protein networks, or networks that are fragmented, are more difficult to melt or tend to separate. Cheese with a loose, flexible web melts smoothly as bonds between proteins gradually break. What gives cheese structure are clusters of the milk protein casein, which form a web that entraps fat and moisture. The structure of cheese is what determines how well it melts. Cheeses with well-developed flavor, on the other hand, tend to break into unseemly, rubbery clumps and pools of separated oil when heated. That’s because cheeses that have a smooth, flowing, cohesive melt often have subtle flavor that is lost in the hearty dish. To get a sauce with creamy texture and distinctive flavor, you need more than one type of cheese. These starch molecules also act as built-in insurance, preventing clumping as cheese is melted into the mixture. Long, unwieldy starch molecules are released and become entangled, trapping the milk and thickening the sauce. When hot milk is whisked into the roux, granules (or little sacs) that hold the flour’s starch absorb the liquid and break open. Flour and butter are cooked together to make roux, a hard-working mixture that is the foundation of the dish’s cheese sauce.Īs the two ingredients cook, melted butter surrounds flour particles, keeping them from clumping together when liquid is added. The chemistry that makes mac and cheese so good starts with the first two ingredients that go into the pan. Once you understand these reactions and master these techniques, you can deploy them to create the dish of your dreams, every time.Ī little science will ensure you never make clumpy, bland, flabby, or oily macaroni and cheese again. It has the ability to warm up a cold day and instantly connect us with childhood memories.īut behind all that warm fuzziness is a series of intricate chemical reactions that happen when the right ingredients are brought together with careful attention to culinary technique. Creamy, delicious homemade mac and cheese tops that exclusive list. Few dishes get to carry the title of comfort food classic.

Mac and cheese sauce roux