Simple Cheese Sauce

    Pictured here are my Pepper Jack Stuffed Pretzel Meatballs that are topped with this Simple Cheese Sauce recipe. It’s a really easy sauce that is a great topping for so many meatballs!!

    Simple Cheese Sauce

    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Cook Time: 20 minutes
    Servings: 6 people
    I love love love cheese sauces and really making any sauce in general. This specific recipe came from the need of making a cheese sauce quickly for a Vikings and Packers game we were going to at a friend's house. It was a recipe that I kind of threw together with the backup plan of having a block of white queso in the pantry that I could heat up quickly if my cheese sauce didn't quite work out. Having a backup plan is always a great idea just in case what you're planning doesn't come together.
    This cheese sauce worked out so well and that's why I'm adding it as a separate recipe to the site. This recipe can be used for any one of the meatballs on this site that call for a cheese sauce or any of the meatballs on this site you think might go well with a nice mild cheese sauce. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you can make changes to the type of cheese that you use but you want one that melts well so that your sauce has a nice smooth texture.
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    Ingredients

    • 2 cups Cheddar Jack Cheese
    • 2 tbs butter
    • 2 tbs flour
    • 1 tbs yellow mustard
    • 2 cups whole milk divided

    Instructions

    • In a saucepan melt the butter on medium heat
    • Once the butter is melted you can add the flour to the pan. Stir these ingredients together until well combined and you can start to smell the nutty smell of the flour. This takes about 5 mins depending on your burner heat.
    • Add in 1 cup of the whole milk and the mustard and cook until the mixture is really thick. This should only take a couple of minutes.
    • Reduce the heat if needed to medium/medium-low. Slowly add in the cheese and fold it into the flour, butter, milk mixture.
    • Once the cheese is incorporated add the remaining cup of milk to the mixture. Stir with a whisk slowly over medium/medium-low heat until the sauce is smooth and the milk is fully incorporated.
    Bowl of ingredients for Apple Pork Meatballs Stuffed with Gorgonzola with little gorgonzola balls in a separate bowl

    I am a huge fan of making a roux and I love playing around with how dark I can get them and how dark I need them to be based on the end result of the recipe I’m creating. I’ve played around with some gumbo recipes as an example and for that you need a good dark roux but it’s also important that you burn the roux. For cheese sauces I tend to get my roux to have a little color and I wait for it to start to smell nutty before adding the liquid that’s called for in the recipe. 

    Serving suggestion for Apple Pork Meatballs Stuffed with Gorgonzola on a bed of fresh greens with toothpicks and a side of apple vinegar slawss

    The only other real tips I’ve learned over the years when it comes to making a good cheese sauce is to make sure you are choosing the right cheese and also make sure you are heating up the cheese slowly. There are so many amazing cheeses out there but there are also so many cheeses that don’t want to melt into a nice smooth sauce as much as other cheeses. Another factor in whether you are going to have luck melting the cheese and not having it be grainy or clumpy is choosing to shred your own cheese. Depending on the type of pre-shredded cheese you buy the coating on the cheese that prevents sticking can sometimes affect the smoothness of the sauce.

    Also you need to make sure you are hammering on the heat when making a cheese sauce. This can cause the sauce to have that grainy texture or even can burn if you’re not stirring enough. It does take a little more time to work the cheese into the flour mixture and also incorporate the additional milk into the cheese and flour mixture when you are using lower heat but I swear it’s worth it for the end result.

     

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