this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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Just wanted to pop by and say that the rest of the world is horrified that Americans eat this puddle of nonsense
It's real cheese, it's just got sodium citrate,
And you can make sodium citrate at home with 4.9 grams of baking soda and 3.7 grams of citric acid. Add about 15 ml of water to start the reaction and wait. The cool thing about this reaction is that there shouldn't be any side products beyond some co2 and a little water.
Anyway, you'll get about 5 grams of sodium citrate dissolved in water. (and you can safely boil off the water to get pure sodium citrate powder)
Which is far more than you need to make a pot of melty goodness.
Now, you could just make a béchamel and slowly melt a young cheese into it, but that's never going to taste the same. Sodium citrate adds in just a little extra tartness, while also making the cheese so creamy that it's kind of hard to describe for those who've not had it.
I am not a fan of highly processed, salt melted cheese in general but the technique you´re describing is very interesting for homemade cheese sauces made from quality cheese. However, I was under the impression that american cheese sauces often contain at least a part if not all fake cheese.
Nope. They almost all have real cheese. Usually a mild cheddar. It's then melted with sodium citrate and pasteurized for a longer shelf life (while still being creamy and tender)
It tastes slightly more tart than straight cheddar, but that's it. Well, slightly more tart than a mild cheddar. A sharp cheddar is just as tart, but it's a slight difference in flavor.
Potentially information bleed over. You can use some American Singles cheese to smooth out cheeses in other dishes because it contains emulsifiers (I think, or another compound), but Nacho Cheese is a specific kind of cheese that should be free of American cheese byproduct
Babes, the Swiss love a bit of fondue.
Not to mention the swiss invented "American" cheese. Heavily processed food and cheese sauces are ubiquitous, this isn't a USA thing
There is no sodium citrate in a proper swiss fondue afaik.
It's just a form of citric acid -- if you put lemon juice or wine in (which a lot of recipes, including the one my swiss grandfather uses, do) then you get the same result.
I don´t think wine melts cheese just like the salt sodium citrate but the acid from the wine combined with the extra alcohol from the Kirschwasser also solves the problem :)