WEIRD (AND CHEESY!) SCIENCE
Unlock Cheese Heaven with this One Ingredient
Happy Thursday W4D pals! We’ve been in the What’s 4 Dinner Lab all week playing with our new favorite ingredient… it will make a luxurious, creamy, dreamy cheese sauce out of water, it ensures that your mac ‘n’ cheese will stay emulsified and never break, and you will never have to buy Velveeta again.
What is this magical ingredient?? Sodium Citrate. And before you clutch your pearls and gasp at the sound of something that seems like “a chemical,” you’ve absolutely eaten it a thousand times already. Let’s get into it…
WHAT IS SODIUM CITRATE?
AU: Story time: I was doing exactly what sleep experts tell you not to do when I woke up one night at 1:00am and couldn’t fall back asleep. After endlessly scrolling through Instagram, I came upon a post by Wylie Dufresne, the molecular gastronomy wunderkind who dazzled diners at his temples of tasty food science, wd-50 and Alder (now he’s applying his “weird science” to inventive pizzas!).
AU: In the caption of the post, he mentioned making a birthday mac ‘n’ cheese for his daughter using the ingredients pictured. One of those ingredients was a bag of Sodium Citrate, which I had never cooked with before. That started the deep dive on what the heck it is (and it obviously resulted in me ordering some immediately—you can, too, here!).
EK: If it wasn’t for Anthony and his sleepless night, I would still be in the dark about the foolproof trick to making a perfectly silky cheese sauce that never breaks. Apparently, it’s Sodium Citrate!
AU: Sodium Citrate is an ingredient that professional chefs have been using for years, but has yet to break into the home cook's arsenal. But we’re here to change that! It’s a type of salt that you can find in many foods and drinks you already eat daily: it’s a common ingredient in club soda, and more applicable for this newsletter, it's what gives American Cheese slices and Velveeta their superior melting abilities.
And thanks to online shopping, you can get some delivered to your door with just a click of a button!
The great thing about sodium citrate is that you can turn any cheese into a gooey, perfectly pourable, totally smooth cheese sauce… even in water! If you’re like me, you’ll wonder why you haven’t used this your entire life.
NO-BOIL OVERNIGHT MAC & CHEESE - PART DEUX
AU: Elizabeth, I gotta tell ya, the very first recipe that popped into my head that sleepless night was “ELIZABETH’S NO-BOIL OVERNIGHT MAC & CHEESE!!”
EK: If this works, it will be a game changer, because although I loved the convenience and the classic Mac ‘n’ Cheese flavor, there was some “breakage” in the original recipe’s sauce.
AU: I remember you tinkering with the recipe over and over to get the consistency correct (and it is correct, y’all… if you don’t feel like seeking out sodium citrate, you should make EK’s original version here). Thanks to science, now we have TWO amazing hands-off mac ’n’ cheese recipes for our W4D readers!
AU: Just like Elizabeth’s original recipe, the ingredient list is short. You can use whatever cheese you have or prefer… I’ve made it with all colby jack cheese, I have made it with cheese you grate from the block and pre-shredded. Here’s the good news: IT ALL WORKS! So use what you’ve got! I’m doing a blend of sharp yellow cheddar and gouda this time around…
I essentially took the exact same flavors that were in Elizabeth’s OG version, because they were so darn-tootin’ tasty… swapping Dijon for dry mustard powder, and using some water instead of all milk. The milk imparts a wonderful dairy flavor (duh), so I think it’s worth keeping some in the mix, but if you don’t have any milk, don’t fret—the sauce will still be creamy with only water and cheese.
AU: If you have 30 seconds to whisk these ingredients together, you’ll be on your way! In a medium bowl, I whisked all the dry spices together with the sodium citrate. Then, while whisking constantly, I slowly poured in two cups of water. Keep whisking to ensure the sodium citrate completely dissolves. Then I whisked in a cup of milk to contribute flavor and extra creaminess.
In a 2-quart casserole dish, I tossed together 2 cups of shredded cheese and 8 ounces (about half of a 1-pound box) of dried pasta. Then, it was as easy as gently pouring the milk-spice mixture over the cheese and pasta in the dish! Cover the whole thing with foil and pop it in the fridge for 24 hours.
AU: When you’re ready to bake it the next day, remove the foil and give the contents a good stir. The pasta will have absorbed some of the liquid and should feel slightly softer to the touch. Preheat your oven to 375ºF and reseal the baking dish tightly with the foil. Place the dish on a parchment-lined baking sheet in case it boils over during cooking. Bake the mac ‘n’ cheese, covered, for 45 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, it will look so soupy you’ll think it’s a disaster—IT’S NOT!
AU: Give the (now soupy) mac ‘n’ cheese a good stir, then top with the reserved cup of shredded cheese. Return the dish to the oven, uncovered, and bake until the cheese is melted and brown in spots—about 15 minutes longer. You can also turn on the broiler for a few minutes, if you watch it closely.
AU: Just like magic, the cheese sauce will have thickened into a luxurious, creamy, dreamy macaroni and cheese… like it came from the blue box! Let the dish sit for another 10 minutes or so, to thicken the sauce further. With the secret ingredient of sodium citrate, you’ll never have to reach for the boxed stuff again!
SHE IS ONE *SAUCY* CHICK!
ELIZABETH MAKES 3 CHEESE SAUCES WITH HER NEW FAVE KITCHEN HELPER
BASIC CHEESE SAUCE
EK: When I researched this little cheese sauce helper, I discovered that it is a compound made up of sodium (like salt but it isn’t too salty tasting) and citric acid. It is the “sodium salt of citric acid” and is sometimes referred to as sour salt. It is used to control acidity and acts as a stabilizer.
The stabilizer part is what makes it so genius for preventing cheese and other sauces that incorporate oil and water (liquid and fat) like gravy from breaking, a.k.a. separating.
I’ve always referred to American cheese as “melty cheese” because it melts so well and holds everything together from perfect scrambled eggs to Mac & Cheese. And, guess what holds it together? Sodium citrate! It’s the fourth ingredient on the label.
As soon as I saw Anthony’s test dishes, I knew I had to order it for myself and try it with a basic cheese sauce and a couple of cheesy dips that relied on cream cheese or Velveeta to keep them together. Namely, beer cheese and queso.
EK: But first, I wanted to get my feet wet with a basic cheese sauce for topping steamed broccoli. I’ve always loved making a cheese sauce for broccoli. It’s a great way to dress it up and entice people who don’t like it to eat the go-to green veg.
Making the cheese sauce was as simple as simmering water, sodium citrate and cheese. I added the cheese to the water that I simmered with 1 teaspoon of sodium citrate.
The recipe on the back of the bag called for 1 cup of water, 1 teaspoon sodium citrate and 1 pound of cheese. At first, I cut everything in half because I wanted to make a smaller portion. I found that you need a teaspoon of the sodium citrate to thicken the sauce even if you use a little less than 1 cup of liquid. I ended up using 3/4 cup of water, 1 teaspoon of the sodium citrate and 8-ounces of extra sharp cheddar that I grated myself.
A little salt, pepper and nutmeg seasoned my cheddar cheese sauce and it was perfect on steamed broccoli! If you like a richer cheese sauce, you could use half milk or cream and half water.
AU: Broccoli never looked so good! Look at that silky-smooth cheese!!
EK: With this success under my belt, I was ready to tackle one of my favorite cheesy dips!
FOOLPROOF QUESO
EK: As soon as I learned about sodium citrate, I thought of Queso/Ro-Tel Dip. This is one of those things that I love and you can not make it without Velveeta—or as we now know—sodium citrate!
AU: Exactly! There’s something about a touch of Velveeta that makes Queso dip taste like home for this Texas boy. But when I was living in NYC, it was surprisingly difficult to find Velveeta (also Ro-Tel!) in grocery stores… now all you need is some sodium citrate in your pantry!
EK: True dat! Plus, you can make it with Jalapeño Jack to up the spice quotient! And that is exactly what I did.
It came together exactly like the cheese sauce, and once the cheese was melted and incorporated in the water, I added a can of Ro-Tel. The texture was perfect and it came together faster than making it with Velveeta. Once it was smooth and all the ingredients were well combined, I let it simmer for 3-4 minutes to thicken up and make sure that all the bits of tomato were hot through and through.
I tasted it and wanted a little more heat (and that vinegar tang) that you get from Tabasco, so I added a generous splash of Tabasco and sprinkled Tajin on the top.
EK: It was good, but when you make the sauce with water, it makes sense that you are diluting the flavor. Next time, I might make it with beer instead of water, or water and blanco tequila to give the cheese an edgier flavor. If you miss the orange-y color of queso, you can make it with half sharp cheddar and half jalapeño jack cheese.
GOLDEN RULE WE LEARNED: Because you are making the sauces with cheese and little else, the quality of the cheese is really important. The sauce will taste only as good as the cheese you use.
BEER CHEESE DIP
EK: My final “test” was to make my favorite Beer Cheese Dip for warm pretzels. I hit on a version last year made with cream cheese that I thought was pretty perfect, but could this one be better? I was skeptical, but it was worth a shot.
I decided to streamline the ingredients and set out beer, sharp cheddar, Parmesan, sodium citrate and some spices. The spices I used included smoked paprika, granulated onion and garlic, a touch of cayenne pepper and dehydrated chives.
Once again, I used an extra-sharp cheddar which is white. If you prefer an orange cheese sauce, use an orange cheddar, or add extra paprika or turmeric for color.
AU: Why are we conditioned to loving orange cheese?? I’m guilty of it. This beer cheese dip sounds amazing, and I can definitely see myself making a vat of it for the Super Bowl this year!
EK: The one thing that I discovered is that beer reacts to the sodium citrate differently than water, so you need more sodium citrate to make sure that the sauce stays creamy. I started with 1 teaspoon (like I used before), but had to increase it to just under 2 teaspoons to make it work with the beer.
EK: The verdict: it was absolutely DIVINE! The best cheese sauce that I have ever tasted!! And the beer rang through in a clear way. It was a Beer Cheese that actually tasted like Beer…and Cheese!
Figuring out that I needed more sodium citrate when using an alcoholic liquid was a good key learning, because the cheese sauce had much more depth of flavor (read: much tastier) thanks to the beer. I will probably add a bit of beer, wine, or a spirit to my cheese sauces in the future.
I am thinking cheese fondue (cheese + kirsch) is going to be next!!!
AU: FONDUE PARTAY AT ELIZABETH’S HOUSE, Y’ALL!!!
EK: In the meantime, if you serve this beer cheese with warm soft pretzels, I guarantee you will be voted hostess of the year!
CONGRATS TO *CHARLES GOFFNETT* WHO WON THE “IT’S STILL GRILLING SEASON” BUNDLE!
You’ll receive the Bamboozle + Elizabeth Karmel Prep ‘n' Serve trays and bowls, three amazing spice blends from The Seasoned Pantry, and Elizabeth’s incredible guide to grilling (and so much more!), Taming the Flame.
Bamboozle and The Seasoned Pantry are offering a special Prep ‘n’ Serve Starter Bundle with a mini version of the Prep ‘n’ Serve and 3 spices on the Bamboozle website. You can also buy the Grilling Spice Bundle alone here.
Thanks for reading, y’all!
xx AU & EK