Make Sticky, Flowing Slices of Any Melting Salt Cheese
American cheese may lack flavor, but the beauty of its mellowness cannot be denied. I hate the choice between flavor and texture, but it turns out it doesn’t have to. Using the fame of melting salts, almost any cheese can be turned into creamy melting slices.
Sodium citrate, which we used before to create a silky smooth nacho cheese sauce, and sodium hexametaphosphate are additives known as “melting salts” that manufacturers use to prevent butter and protein from separating when the cheese is melted. (If you’ve ever melted cheddar, you’ve seen butter drip and spread; melting salts prevent this.) To incorporate melting salts into your cheese, you’ll need to melt, stir, and reform. This is easiest to do with an immersion circulation pump, but you can also install your own drying oven using a beer cooler or stovetop .
The process is slightly different for each type of cheese, but let’s focus on cheddar. (You can read instructions for other types of cheese by going to the ChefSteps link below.) To make the sharpest, smoothest slices of cheddar in your life, you’ll need:
- 300 g Spicy cheddar cheese, diced
- 120 g milk
- 30 g ghee
- 9 g sodium citrate
- 4 g salt
- 0.75 g sodium hexametaphosphate
Set the water bath to 75 ° C and cut the cheese into cubes. Combine all ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and dip until the cheese is completely melted. Transfer to a food processor or blender and beat until smooth. Pour into a plastic wrap lined bread pan and refrigerate for eight hours. Slice and melt everything.
Processed cheese slices | ChefSteps