I love the taste of harder aged cheeses in grilled cheese, but I can't stand the texture when the cheese breaks into oil/solids during melting. So I've been doing experiments with sodium citrate.
Cheeses: 250 grams 9 month aged English Cheddar, 180 grams 6 month aged Gouda, 20 grams 24 month aged Parmigiano Reggiano. 12 grams sodium citrate into 100 ml of milk to start the emulsification.
Bread is Fairbanks AK sourdough culture, 24 hour ferment, 100% wheat, with a spicy tomato bisque with gorgonzola crumbles to finish the soup.
I haven't decided yet whether the leftover processed cheese will go to jalapeno beer cheese dip for pretzels, or broccoli cheddar soup, but it will be one of the two.
by sholt1142
19 Comments
Science man, Science man, doing us a science!
Eh, that’s an assumption, could be Science woman.
You have far more patience than I will ever have, and I salute your experiment!
Well? We’re all curious how it turned out!
This whiz would go crazy on a cheese steak.
Getting the “it’s technically a sodium citrate melt” comment out of the way
This is awesome! I have been looking for a way to make nacho cheese sauce and this looks like a similar texture. Thank you!
Sodium citrate is a very useful emulsifier in general, not just for cheeses. Permanent place in my spice cabinet.
You are seriously a mad scientist, and I love it.
Keep us updated as you continue to experiment.
Just remember this when people start trash talking American cheese or other things that have emulsifiers or stabilizers.
There are certainly variants that are nasty but using these things doesn’t immediately make something bad or fake.
The heat tolerance of sodium citrate makes it super awesome for something like this and I’m glad you took it for a spin and came out happy!
All that effort and all those words and you didn’t show a cheese pull or picture of the sandwich cut in half!
Why?
I’ve been blinded… with SCIENCE!
I’ve had mixed results with my own sodium citrate experiments. Absolutely worth trying. There is also a middle ground which is to just mix in some american/process cheese (or whatever you want to call it). It has the emulsifiers in it. Not for the purist but it does mix together and gets the melty business done.
Butiric acid is another thing common in hard cheeses that effects scent and thusly flavor
How did you decide/calculate the ratio of cheese-milk-sodium citrate?
Thanks for documenting and posting this, it’s very informative and answers quite a few questions. Very cool post!
Take this 🏆
Is the ratio Of sodium citrate to milk fixed or is it dependent upon the amount of cheese youre using?
A grilled cheese mad scientist at work, the finished product looks really good