Most commercial sauces are engineered for quick cooking and maximum throughput efficiency, so reliance on flavor systems, fat stabilizers and starch-based thickeners is necessary to copy, as closely as possible, the gold-standard sauce. Water is also a primary ingredient in many manufactured cheese sauces. It’s supplemented with whey protein, dry dairy powders and fat replacers to mimic cream and other dairy. These formulations are desired for their shelf-life qualities—resistance to fats breaking down or turning rancid, ability to stay emulsified at refrigerated and at ambient temperatures (optimizing pH, salt and water activity, aw, can allow these sauces to be shelf stable at room temperature for an extended time)—as well as their ability to replace expensive cream and lower overall cost.
When making cheese sauces for industrial customers, I am asked to capture fresh flavors, sauté and roasted notes, fresh colors, aromas and, of course, fresh cheese flavors and profiles. To satisfy these requests, I can use flavor systems to copy and enhance almost any sauce process step, from sweating to reductions. There are numerous excellent wine and alcohol reductions, flavor enhancers (natural and artificial), cream replacers and a seemingly endless list of flavors, ranging from herbs, sautéed and roasted vegetable flavors, and a limitless supply of cheese and dairy concentrates. Wine reductions would go well with aromatic vegetable flavors that might replace any vegetables or herbs, such as shallots, onions, bay leaf and garlic, present in the gold standard. Along with these flavors, the dairy and cheese notes can be further accented with cheese and dairy flavors, and enzyme-modified cheeses.
The richness or creaminess of a sauce can be enhanced by cream replacers that employ high-shear cutting of the fat into a stabilized solution of liquid and dairy solids. This type of process not only enhances the mouthfeel of the sauce, it can reduce overall ingredient costs and can improve the functional cling properties that certain sauces need.
Even more challenging are sauces that call for longer refrigerated shelf life and shelf-stability requirements. Depending on the customers’ cooking and holding parameters, cheese sauces can be formulated to be either frozen, refrigerated or shelf stable. To ensure total food safety for sauces, the proper use of preservatives is sometimes critical, but, unfortunately, this often results in notable differences in flavor and finished-sauce quality from the original. Frozen sauces—the closest to kitchen-made—will be good for only a few days after thawed. Sauces that have lower aw, higher salt and lower pH can stay safe at refrigerated temperatures for weeks and even months. Shelf-stable sauces have salt, pH and aw at levels where they will stay safe for extended periods of time at ambient temperatures.
To overcome these differences, selecting the correct organic acid to complement a flavor of the type of cheese in the sauce can often limit the flavor impact of preservatives. In the same regard, one preservative does not fit all applications and will have different effects on flavor.
Many sauces manufactured for the foodservice market have a pH, less than 5.8 and an overall aw low enough to prevent microorganisms from growing. These might be in the form of concentrates where additional water is added by the user. Cleaner-flavor and preservative-free sauces usually have to be frozen.
Looking ahead
I see the future of cheese sauces encompassing more ethnic cheeses and cheese blends. We’ll also see more use of artisan-style cheese and cheese with specific marketing points, such as Point Reyes blue from California, or cheeses with identifiable brand names such as Grafton Village Cheddar from Vermont or Roth Käse Gruyère from Wisconsin.
These types of cheeses will most likely be used in small, high-end restaurants, while eventually working their way up to casual chains. There is still a large focus on high-end food quality, and more food adventurers are looking for different flavors and will opt to buy locally whenever possible.
Cheese sauces and cheese solutions will continue to reign as the all-encompassing, versatile, comfort, fun food that can act as dressings, dips, spreads and toppings. As restaurants continue to look at the cross-functionality of food items that can expand across the menu, deliver exciting new flavors, be cost-effective and continue to rise in popularity, cheese sauces will emerge as primary options, especially because they can be produced for almost any type of application.
Factors most addressed in casual and quick-serve chains relate to operational efficiencies: Can it hold for extended periods of time? Can it be easily microwaved without breaking? But on the flavor side, cheese sauces that can be cross-functional on the menu will also have great impact. A microwavable, spreadable sauce with lots of particulates (chicken, beans, herbs, etc.) and lots of flavors can work as a dip, stirred into soups or function as a spread on a wrap will gain in popularity.
Also, major advances in low-fat and reduced-fat cheeses have led the way for lower-fat cheese sauces. Heat is also a big trend showing no signs of abating. With popular chiles, such as jalapeño, chipotle, habanero and ancho, we now can look to natural cheeses and sauces that are produced with these hotter chiles to help carry and balance robust, fun flavors while delivering the spiciness that customers are expecting.
Tony Benedict came to Sargento Foods, Inc., Plymouth, WI, as development chef in 2006. He has served as chef at The Rattlesnake Club, Detroit; corporate executive chef/director of R&D at Carla’s Pasta; executive sous chef and chef Instructor at New England Culinary Institute; and chef at a variety of restaurants, hotels and resorts. Benedict is an active member of the Institute of Food Technologists and the Research Chefs Association and has received numerous awards recognizing his culinary expertise. He is married, has two children and resides in Ply-mouth, WI.