I'm gonna make me a big ol' bowl of melty sodium citrate cheese dip!

M

marilynfl

Moderator
INGREDIENTS

•1/2 cup cold wheat beer or water

•14 grams sodium citrate

•7 ounces Gruyère cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)

•6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)

INSTRUCTIONS

Place the beer or water in a large saucepan, add the sodium citrate, and stir until dissolved. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Gradually add both cheeses to the simmering liquid, using an immersion blender to combine after each addition, until all of the cheese is melted and smooth. Use immediately.

http://www.chow.com/recipes/30493-perfectly-melting-cheese

 
If you really want to make it fancy...

.... add a tiny bit of 2,4-dithiapentane

Voila': perfection!

 
Yikes! The first reaction my eyes registered was citrate (as in magnesium), and bowel that =

"To the moon!!"
Jackie Gleason

 
You know this sounds wierd, but sour salt is used in Jewish cookery. . .

and as an acidifying agent while canning. It is an acid found in citrus fruits, If I remember right. I use it when I can tomatoes instead of using lemon juice. It adds the needed acid without a lemon flavor.

And it makes a doggone fine toilet bowl cleaner too--really strips those hard water rings right off!

 
and in many East European cuisines. I use it in borscht. It really makes a difference to

add that spike without the flavour.

 
Someone asked if you can just use citric acid (which I have--from Jerusalem) but

since sodium citrate is a derivative, I thought it might not work.

Checked at two local pharmacy's...they don't carry it but were amused that the customer (moi) wanted it for cheese dip.

 
You got me on a hunt to find out the diff between the 2. I sure have fogotten 3 years of Organic

Chemistry and now I'm befuddled. I hope you try this, with the citric acid (which some sites state is erroneously referred to as sour salt), or sodium citrate Na3C6H5O7 to see how it works. I'm wondering if it might also have an effect on the fat of the cheese.

 
It's good stuff!

Marilyn,

I have made variations on the sodium citrate cheese for a while now. (Only because a good friend of mine works for the Modernist Cuisine guys, and he let my chef buddy Becky and me preview some of his class instruction and provide feedback last spring).

They made us the melty cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich with thinly sliced apples. We loved it and ordered sodium citrate to do it on our own the MOMENT we got home. I followed a variation of that Chow recipe, using beer as the liquid medium and it's amazing. Melty Velveeta texture, but it tastes of nothing but real cheese. It blew my mind.

Our latest version (and one for which I'll write a blog post and throw the recipe out there for everyone soon) was using Thomas Keller's recipe for French Onion Soup, reducing the broth, and using that (as well as 2 cups of caramelized onions) with sodium citrate and gruyere (with a little parm for salt). Result: French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for a crowd. Our cookbook club LOVED it.

Definitely encourage you to play with this recipe. Once you have the basic formula down, you can use any liquid and any cheese. They way they explained it to us is that sodium citrate strengthens the natural emulsion of cheese (that's all cheese is, really), which also explains why unlike any classic cheese sauce, you boil the hell out of this when you're making your original mixture.

Would love to hear what you think of it!

Marc

 
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