Author Topic: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.  (Read 7064 times)

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Offline IanB

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #25 on: January 21, 2025, 12:53:11 am »
I don't think browning preserves moisture. You need to cover it with a lid or foil to do that. Then uncover it at the end to brown the top under the grill or broiler.
 

Offline coppercone2

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #26 on: January 21, 2025, 01:21:50 am »
for this one you need to clean the oven and look through the window while you are cooking
 

Offline temperance

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #27 on: January 21, 2025, 01:32:15 am »
I'm used to seeing many topics starting with or containing the word "Chinese". But then it didn't seem to have anything to do with Chinesium.

Mozzarella dissolve fine into sauces. But as with many cheeses, the sauce in question must be a source of friction for the cheese to dissolve and not too warm. Something like spaghetti sauce with vegetables for example works well.


How about some Roquefort sauce? Or Mascarpone mixed with in white wine extinguished grilled pine nuts with some fine dry ham on top?
 

Offline paulcaTopic starter

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #28 on: January 21, 2025, 05:18:36 pm »
Just to highlight how much of a philistine I am regarding food on some nights.

Last night I had chicken and cheese sauce with pasta.

The pasta came out of a bag and the chicken and "white sauce" came out of a tin.  The cheese I added as "undescript"  "Grated Italian hard cheese" from a sprinkler.

It was lovely.  Now in fairness, the "Chicken in White sauce" tins are like £3.60  which is probably why it doesn't taste like garbage and is actually at least 40% chicken.
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Offline ohren

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #29 on: January 21, 2025, 08:57:14 pm »
for this one you need to clean the oven and look through the window while you are cooking

It is not necessary. It is not poisonous.
 

Offline paulcaTopic starter

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #30 on: January 22, 2025, 12:38:50 pm »
Another tip on cheese.

We all know that "roasted" cheese is gorgeous.  It has such a powerful "zest".

As such, if I am making something which starts with frying the meat etc.  I add a few grates of cheese in at that point.  That cheese gets fried to a crisp by the end, but it releases that roast cheese zest/kick.
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Offline paulcaTopic starter

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #31 on: January 22, 2025, 12:43:01 pm »
On "browning" to seal in moisture.

I too have this in my catering tool kit.  Particularly with "sealing meat" first before cooking as an aim to seal juices in.

However, I have come across quite the debate as to whether this does anything worthwhile or not.

I know I have thrown a kilo of beef into tinfoil, put it in the oven with nothing else done to it.  In 4 hours it was gorgeous.  No sealing, no seasoning, no stock nothing.  Honestly the tinfoil was full of juice at the end, the meat about half the size it started out.  The only change I would make is to season it before next time.  Just salt.
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Online themadhippy

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #32 on: January 22, 2025, 02:03:07 pm »
Quote
I know I have thrown a kilo of beef into tinfoil, put it in the oven with nothing else done to it.  In 4 hours it was gorgeous.  No sealing, no seasoning, no stock nothing.  Honestly the tinfoil was full of juice at the end, the meat about half the size it started out.  The only change I would make is to season it before next time.  Just salt.


Chuck some mushrooms onion and garlic in there and it gets even better.
 
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Offline coppercone2

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #33 on: January 22, 2025, 03:51:45 pm »
cafeteria beef
 

Offline paulcaTopic starter

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #34 on: January 22, 2025, 03:57:21 pm »
cafeteria beef

Monday slop / school dinners.  Although that's usually just beef mince and gravy on mashed spuds.
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Offline coppercone2

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #35 on: January 23, 2025, 12:05:54 am »
baking it is the defacto way to make large amounts of ground beef for cafeteria food, no one is gonna be pan frying that

I think it gives catering food a unique taste that sometimes is craved

6 trays of that in the oven can do many pounds of good tasting beef with minimal effort

at the end you can even throw it under a broiler individually too.

they always use paper too, for easy cleanup

but if it was the end all, people would not be making fun of bake-only meat balls.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2025, 12:10:06 am by coppercone2 »
 

Offline paulcaTopic starter

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #36 on: January 23, 2025, 12:30:56 pm »
It's an interesting discussion.  It usually comes up at Christmas dinner in my family.

My mother was taught to cook by her mother.  The style of cooking there in is one suited to that VERY busy 1950s mother.  Always 100% flat out especially around dinner time.  Not least that they seem to think that multi-tasking is efficient.

So the cooking matches that "load management" with the multitasking and "prep".

Veg is where the battle ground lies.  My mothers "classic" cooking tells her to pre-prepare the veg and put it into pans with cold water.  Then later at the "right time" they get turned on.

This means that all veg, not just potatoes are soaked in cold water, then slowly raised to boiling and allowed to boil for many minutes.  Even for things like peas, brocilli etc.  "Delicate veg".  Sometimes they are then turned off and left to cool until serving.

Honestly.  If you want the micro-nutrients at all, you would be better off drinking the water.  Any and all texture in the veg is destroyed.

However.  My mother has also cooked in homeless kitchens for 50 people per meal.  That is exactly where her style of cooking shines.  Quick, bulk, slop.

When she remembers, she will set my brocoli aside and "blanch" it for 2 minutes tops.  Bless her.
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Offline IanB

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #37 on: January 23, 2025, 03:57:38 pm »
Veg is where the battle ground lies.  My mothers "classic" cooking tells her to pre-prepare the veg and put it into pans with cold water.  Then later at the "right time" they get turned on.

This means that all veg, not just potatoes are soaked in cold water, then slowly raised to boiling and allowed to boil for many minutes.  Even for things like peas, brocilli etc.  "Delicate veg".  Sometimes they are then turned off and left to cool until serving.

Honestly.  If you want the micro-nutrients at all, you would be better off drinking the water.  Any and all texture in the veg is destroyed.

Preparing in advance ("mise en place") is actually a good thing. There is nothing worse than trying to prepare food while other things are on the stove and needing attention.

However, only potatoes need to be kept in cold water to stop them going brown. Other vegetables can be just placed in an empty pan with the lid on and cooked just before needed.

Only when you try to cook a meal does it really become apparent how important timing is for everything to come together at the right time, neither under cooked nor over cooked (or worse, burned  :( ).

I have to say though, I am quite familiar with food being overcooked. I grew up in a home where meat was not allowed to be pink. So beef and lamb always had to be roasted until they were brown right through to the middle. Nothing I could ever say would change that view.
 

Offline paulcaTopic starter

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #38 on: January 23, 2025, 05:13:45 pm »
Pre-prep in the sense of having things chopped and ready yea.

For "delicate" veg like brocoli I chop it to remove most thick stalk and microwave it with butter, salt, pepper for 1 minute (for a single portion).

When you open the microwave, the butter has disappeared (so it's healthy right?) and the brocili is steaming.  It's soft, but has "bite" and tastes lovely.

"Sweet, non-starchy veg" like peas, carrots, turnip... I often prefer them raw.

Probably the most delicate veg to cook is "baby spinach".  Larger harder spinach is easier, but baby spinach leaves...  I put an inch of boiling water into my large pan.  I put the "frozen" spinach into the bottom of my draining colander, place that inside the pan and put the lid on.  1 to 2 minutes and it's out and on the plate.  I don't own a steamer, nor do I need one :)  If you over cook it, it basically disintigrates into slime dark green slop that sticks to everything it touches.

You touched on one of the things I find most fun about cooking actual meals of many parts.  When I did "Quantative Analysis" in software courses when I was 18, I started using techniques from it for cooking.  "Task networking" leading to "critical path analysis" facilitating parallelism.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2025, 05:19:52 pm by paulca »
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Offline IanB

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Re: DON'T: Cheese sauce with Mozzerela.
« Reply #39 on: January 23, 2025, 05:48:04 pm »
For "delicate" veg like brocoli I chop it to remove most thick stalk and microwave it with butter, salt, pepper for 1 minute (for a single portion).

Broccoli stalks are also very tasty: just peel the skin off them with a potato peeler and cook them with the florets.

Quote
Probably the most delicate veg to cook is "baby spinach".

And asparagus. You only have to slightly overcook that and it also turns to mush.

« Last Edit: January 23, 2025, 05:52:33 pm by IanB »
 


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