Parmesan turned into one lump in sauce

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shagnski

Assistant Cook
Joined
Feb 26, 2013
Messages
7
Location
Raleigh
Had a great tasting sauce last night and then added some diced tomatoes and the grated Parmesan in sauce turned into one lump that look like fresh mozzarella. removed lump and added more parm. same result. What went wrong?
 
Hi, and welcome to DC :)

It sounds like you dropped the whole quantity of cheese all in one spot. Try sprinkling it around the pot and then stirring it in. In fact, do this with all ingredients. It's easier to incorporate them more evenly into the dish.
 
Welcome to DC! I've never had that happen. I did see on ATK that one is supposed to add the cheese in small quantities, stir, add more.
 
It was pre-grated in a tub and I did sprinkle it around and it seems to incorporate well until I added diced tomatoes.
 
Was your sauce boiling or simmering? This will happen if the sauce is too hot. It causes the cheese to melt quickly. Before it has a chance to incorporate correctly. :angel:
 
It was simmering and only clumped as the cooling tomatoes were added. I removed clump returned to simmer added new cheese it also clumped.
 
It was simmering and only clumped as the cooling tomatoes were added. I removed clump returned to simmer added new cheese it also clumped.


It should not be simmering! Thats way too hot for cheese.

Cheese separates at 160 degrees. Your liquid should be hot enough to melt the cheese but no hotter than 150 or so.

I doubt it was the tomatoes, as lemon juice is sometimes used to fix a curdled cheese sauce.
 
I'm thinking that it was a chemical reaction. The acid in the tomatoes, along with the heat of the sauce, probably caused the milk proteins to bind. When making homemade mozzarella or cottage cheese, you typically add citric acid to cause curds to form in warm milk, which then bind together to make cheese.
 
I am thinking Chemical reaction as well, but the sauce already had lemon zest and the juice of half a lemon before I added tomatoes.
 
Maybe the heat? I was making up a shrimp pasta.
Sauteed Shrimp removed from pan.
Poured off most of the oil added Garlic.
added 1cup cream 1 cup skim milk as it was cooking down added zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon, Oregano, basil.
Added one half cup of parm. sauce thickened nicely.
Added one can of drained diced tomatoes.
turned up heat to cook down tomatoes and then clump problem.
 
Was it imported Italian cheese with "Parmigiano Reggiano" embossed on the rind?
 
You should have added the cheese at the very end after your sauce was done and it had cooled down a bit. Cheese, any cheese doesn't like high heat. Cheese is just a flavor enhancer to the whole dish. Not to the whole pot. Hard cheeses do not like high heat ever. They don't act like semi soft cheeses like cheddar. Parm is a cheese that is supposed to be used at the table, not the stove top. If you include it in a dish you are putting together like lasagna you work with it when the dish is cold and all the ingredients are the same temp as the Parm. Then when it is put in the oven it heats up slowly along with the other ingredients.

The fact that it is Stella cheese is not a factor with your problem. We all buy what is available to us or we can afford. Your problem was with adding it to the high heat. I hope I explained this clearly. :angel:
 
The fact that it is Stella cheese is not a factor with your problem. We all buy what is available to us or we can afford. Your problem was with adding it to the high heat. I hope I explained this clearly. :angel:

Actually, that's not true. We decided just for the heck of it to try some pre-shredded supposed parmagiano reggiano cheese that was on BOGO at our grocery within the last few months. It wasn't cheap either, at least for a single tub of it, not as expensive as the real stuff but still not cheap. We decided to try it just cause it was BOGO and we were out of the real stuff that's $20/pound at our regular convenient grocery. It was crap, tasted more like wax and and didn't melt right (made small clumps) when added to a sauce (tomato or cream based). I don't remember what brand it was but it wasn't some off the wall brand. I think we used most of one tub and chucked the other.

Let's put it this way, from now on, we'll either pay the $20/pound or make the trip to one of the other places where it's $12-14/pound or do without than try something like that again.
 
Actually, that's not true. We decided just for the heck of it to try some pre-shredded supposed parmagiano reggiano cheese that was on BOGO at our grocery within the last few months. It wasn't cheap either, at least for a single tub of it, not as expensive as the real stuff but still not cheap. We decided to try it just cause it was BOGO and we were out of the real stuff that's $20/pound at our regular convenient grocery. It was crap, tasted more like wax and and didn't melt right (made small clumps) when added to a sauce (tomato or cream based). I don't remember what brand it was but it wasn't some off the wall brand. I think we used most of one tub and chucked the other.

Let's put it this way, from now on, we'll either pay the $20/pound or make the trip to one of the other places where it's $12-14/pound or do without than try something like that again.


The quality of the cheese really doesn't affect its ability to melt much.

But the type of cheese does.

As does the fat content.

And, obviously, the technique used matters most.

The quality of the cheese will absolutely affect the taste of your final product.
 
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Your sauce was 40 degrees over the separation point of the cheese.

Thats where I would start in this analysis.

jennyema has nailed this issue quite clearly. Cheese doesn't like it too hot, weird and ugly things happen when you try to mess with that.

Better luck on your next experiment.
 
Thanks everyone for your help. I will next time avoid heat and be careful with the cheese I use. I tasted the lump i pulled out. It had the consistency and the taste of salty fresh mozzarella.
 
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