How do I melt a brick of cheese to make cheese sauce.?

Answer 1

In a covered corningware or baking dish, cube up the cheese into 1" cubes. Then nuke it 30 seconds at a time ,stirring and mashing with a fork. If you are talking about rotel dip, just pour the can over the cubes at the start.

Answer 2

Brick Of Cheese

Answer 3

Grate the cheese or cut it into cubes, then add it to a basic white sauce (bechamel). Here's how we do it:

Classic Mornay sauce (bechamel with cheese):

1/2 to 1 pound of cheese, grated
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter
1/2 cup (4 oz) all-purpose flour
1 to 2 cups milk
Salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste (see Notes)

In a 2-quart saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat till the foam subsides, but do not let it brown. Add the flour and stir in with a wire whisk. The resulting mixture (called a roux) should look like a thick paste or dough. Stir for two to three minutes to let the flour absorb all the butter; if necessary add a bit more flour.

In a thin stream, add the milk a little at a time, whisking as you go. (If you dump the milk in too quickly it will cause the butter to congeal, which is nasty.) Keep adding the milk till it is just slightly thinner than the consistency you want the sauce to be.

Add the grated cheese, a handful at a time, continuing to whisk the sauce. The cheese will thicken the sauce slightly (which is one reason you want it a little thin in the previous step), and the sauce will continue to thicken slightly as you cook it (which is the other reason).

Taste the sauce (remember, it's hot!) for seasoning and adjust for your purpose. Remove from heat and use as quickly as possible; the sauce will "skin over" if left on the heat too long.

Notes

1. In addition to salt and pepper (white pepper if possible), I sometimes like to add a few flavorings to my cheese sauce, depending on what it's going on. If I'm making a cheddar sauce (such as to go into mac and cheese), I love to add a tablespoon or so of Dijon mustard and a dash of Tabasco or some other chili sauce.

If I'm making a white-cheddar sauce for Welsh rarebit, it's great to add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce to give it a little tang and some depth.

If it's going on top of a baked pasta dish (such as ziti al forno), I use Italian cheese (fontina, provolone, asiago and parmigiano is a good blend) and add a little marsala wine. And if it's going on a seafood dish such as coquilles St. Jacques (scallops, mushrooms and baby shrimp), I use gruyere cheese and add white wine or a nice dry sherry.

2. If you look up "bechamel" on the Web, you're likely to find two things different from our simplified version -- first, some bechamel sauces use egg yolks, and most tell you to heat the milk first. We do sometimes use the egg-yolk version but generally leave it out; the egg-yolk version is best if you want something that's going to be baked on top of a dish, as it makes it puffier and almost like a batter rather than a sauce. And as for the milk, the reason you add heated milk is so that it doesn't make the butter congeal; we've found that adding the milk a little at a time, and in a thin stream, has the same effect but doesn't require getting another pan dirty.

3. The proportions here, especially of the cheese, are highly variable. If you want a sauce that's only lightly cheese-flavored (such as for scallops), use 1/4 pound or so; if you're making macaroni and cheese (and yes, this IS how we do mac and cheese), use a full pound -- though we usually reserve SOME of the cheese to stir in with the noodles, so that there are pockets of melted cheese as well as the cheese sauce. Makes it extra tasty.

Answer 4

Dice the cheese into small pieces, first

You can do it in a microwave, but do it slowly.
Use 30-45 seconds at high and stir in between.

On a stovetop, put it into a double boiler (into an empty pan set into a pan of simmering water).
Stir it often and watch it carefully.

Answer 5

Cut the brick of cheese in little cubes , microwave or stove top , stirring constantly untill melted.

Answer 6

cut it into cubes. fill a pan with enough milk to cover a lyer of cubes if they were in the pan or a lil more. Heat the milk to a simmer, wehn the milk starts to steam begin adding a few cubes while stirring constantly when those cubes are alomst gone add a few more. Never add too many at once or the milk will cool down too much. keep adding and stirring over lower heat.

Answer 7

I am from WISCONSIN!!! "The Dairy State" I deserve a Best Answer for this one!!! Just like chocolate... Put a smaller pan inside of a larger pan that contains boiling water (the smaller pan is where your cheese goes), cut into smaller pieces (or break-up or grate), and stir constantly...

Answer 8

Either grate it or cut into small pieces first (it melts faster and more evenly if you increase the surface area.) Melt over a double boiler to avoid scalding.

Answer 9

I would just put a little butter in a pan and set the stove on a very low heat and let it melt... or you could use a microwave also.

Answer 10

First of all grate the cheese into a *bain marie and carry on from there!
*In a pyrex type dish over a pot of boiling water!