When making sauces that contain dairy products, including cheese, keep the heat low. High heat and dairy-based sauces are not friends. When making dairy-based sauces, bring the amount of acidic ingredients in the sauce to the minimum to avoid major texture changes. Thus, it is only natural that adding these ingredients to dairy-based sauces causes them to separate. In case you didn’t know, acidic ingredients such as vinegar and lemon juice are used to curdle milk and make homemade cheese. Ingredients that contain acid can make your dairy-based sauce gritty. The latter curdles quicker than milk with a high fat content. It is hard to achieve a smooth consistency in dairy-based sauces made with low-fat products or skim milk. There are many reasons why sauces containing dairy curdle. When dairy curdles, the proteins separate from the liquid and form curds. They are made from milk, fats, and water. Grittiness is a common problem not only with cheese sauces but with dairy sauces in general. The most important thing to understand when working with dairy products is their composition. There are ways to fix grainy cheese sauce, but it is always easier to make the sauce smooth and creamy right from the beginning instead of trying to fix it later. Continue reading to learn how to fix grainy cheese sauce, make second-day mac and cheese sauce creamy again, fix grainy queso dip, and much more. In this article, we’ve revealed all the dos and don’ts of the cheese sauce making process. If you don’t have lemon juice, you can use high-fat cream instead. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice to detangle the protein molecules and whisk to achieve a creamy smooth texture. How do you fix grainy cheese sauce? To fix grainy cheese sauce, remove it from the heat and let it cool. But sometimes the cheese we buy for the sauce fails us or we unknowingly make a mistake that affects the texture, causing it to become gritty.

When it comes to cheese sauces, all we want is a smooth velvety texture.

Macaroni and cheese roux