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Melting Salts for Melting Hard Cheese

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    Melting Salts for Melting Hard Cheese

    There’s a huge convenience factor with processed cheese because it melts so nicely, but you’ll get a better flavor from other cheeses. You can easily make perfectly melting cheese and non-separating cheese sauces (for mac & cheese or nachos) by using your favorite cheese, whether it's aged or unaged, and melting salts.

    The following information is gleaned from Internet "conversations" with experienced cheese sauce makers and various web sites. Practically none of it is original.

    For mac & cheese I've been making homemade American Cheese using sharp cheddar (sometimes smoked) and milk. It melts like Velveeta but tastes waaaaaay better. With melting salts, the cheese sauce for mac & cheese is quick and simple and eliminates the need to mess with roux. I measure 1oz dry elbow macaroni per serving and cook it. For the cheese sauce, I double the weight in milk and any favorite gourmet cheese(s). Two oz each per serving adding 4% melting salt to the milk. I add the cooked macaroni to the cheese sauce and put it on my smoke pit ‘till hot and bubbling.

    __________________________________________________ _____________
    Smooth Cheese Sauce for Mac & Cheese

    When making a smooth cheese sauce for Mac & Cheese, consider the weight of the cheese to be 100%, then the weight of the liquid should be 93% of the weight of the cheese, and the weight of the sodium citrate should be 4% of that liquid weight (which is approximately the same as 2% of the sum of the liquid weight plus cheese weight). The formula is very forgiving so there's no need to be extremely precise.

    This method of making a silky and non-separating cheese sauce is very easy. No need to make a roux or a bechamel sauce which masks the pure flavor of your favorite cheese. Just whisk a teaspoon or two of sodium citrate into your liquid of choice, heat the liquid and blend in your favorite grated cheese with a stick blender, regular blender, or whisk. This results in a smooth, creamy texture that doesn't become grainy, greasy, or separated. You can also add in any flavors you enjoy like Rotel with green chile or Pico de Gallo. You can refrigerate any leftovers and reheat it the next day to enjoy the smoothest cheese sauce ever!
    __________________________________________________ _____________

    For other types of cheese sauces, you can control the final "thickness" of the cheese sauce depending on your ratio of liquid to cheese. If you weigh your cheese and then measure the liquid (water, milk, beer, wine, stock, etc.) as a percentage of that cheese weight, you will get:

    Cheese plus 0% to 35% liquid weight = firm, use for making "American" cheese slices for burgers, etc.
    Cheese plus 35% to 85% liquid weight = thick and flowing cheese sauce, good for dips and queso.
    Cheese plus 85% to 120% liquid weight = thin cheese sauce, good for fondues, mac & cheese, etc.
    Cheese plus 120% liquid weight or more = continues to become a thinner and thinner sauce.

    100% weight of cheese 16 oz.
    93% whipping cream 14.88 oz. (weight, not fluid oz.)
    4% liquid weight = 0.60 oz. Sodium Citrate
    I can measure that small amount of Sodium Citrate with a quality scale. I use a handloading scale and convert to gram weight. I think this scale will work: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

    If you don't have a scale, here's an easy hack to use: granulated sodium citrate weighs about 4.25 grams per teaspoon (which is equivalent to about 0.15 ounces per teaspoon).
    So in the example above, you could use 4 level teaspoons of sodium citrate (= .6 ounces).

    This article can start you down the melting salts path: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities...-cheese-slices. They heat the mixture sous vide but, if you’re careful, you can just use a heavy sauce pan and low heat and it’ll work just as well.

    You may be inspired to try their nachos: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/nacho-cheese.

    And here’s their mac & cheese recipe. https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes...ni-and-cheese/. This is the stepping off point. Use it as the foundation for your special version.

    Then try Alfredo sauce with sous vide shrimp.

    Caution:
    Sodium Citrate is NOT the same as Citric Acid. Use Sodium Citrate for the results above. You can buy it on Amazon.

    #2
    Yuppers. Sodium citrate is the absolute key to a creamy, velvet-like non-breaking cheese sauce. It is a must have on hand for home made mac and cheese IMO.

    If you can deal with Kraft slices then adding a couple of those does the same trick as the sodium citrate without the measuring since they are processed with it.

    Comment


      #3
      I have to try this. I have tried making mac & cheese on the smoker s couple of times and it has come out very grainy. Maybe this will work. Thank you

      Comment


        #4
        I created my own conversion spreadsheet (not complete) but found this calculator that also works.

        Comment


        • pmillen
          pmillen commented
          Editing a comment
          Oh, Wow! Thanks, JimLinebarger. That's a great find. Also, I think you should go ahead and post the spreadsheet here. You can always update it for us.

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