Cool Guides

Tip: reacting baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with citrus juice (citric acid) will yeild a solution of sodium citrate of you don't have any/don't want to buy some just to try it out

Yeah, this is crucial. Some of the cheeses under melting won't melt easily and will instead break under higher heats. Emulsifiers will prevent breaking and turn a lot of cheeses into melting cheeses.

Soft cheese = stringy melt

Young/semi-firm cheese = creamy melt

Aged/hard cheeses = no/difficult to melt

Exceptions: halloumi and paneer will sear like meat and not melt

Pecorino and parmesan can be melted but will precipitate out of sauces if they are brought above 180 f (82.2 c)

An article on the science of cheese melting for the curious

I know, right! It would be cool to have info on some other common cheeses as well.

I'm wondering primarily which category parmesan falls under, but I think it's more on the meltier side.

We're fresh out

I like referring to halloumi as European Paneer.

And sometimes it isn’t even cheese at all (since "cheese" needs to contain at least 51% cheese, which American cheese sometimes doesn’t. It is then usually labeled as "cheese product" instead of "cheese")

NileBlue – Making American cheese to debunk a conspiracy

[holds hand out to pat the Piped link bot on its good boi head]

Sodium citrate is amazing. It’s an emulsifier, which allows the fat to stay bonded with water. Normally the fat and water separates as soon as the cheese melts, and you end up with chunky or gritty cheese sauce. So we use an emulsifier to allow the two to mix smoothly.

Natural emulsifiers are fairly common, but tend to have issues in regards to cooking. For instance, egg yolks contain an emulsifier, but it will scald and denature when it gets hot… Wine also has an emulsifier but has the same issue.

This is why fondue recipes call for wine. It allows the fondue to melt smoothly, and the double-boiler fondue pot ensures the fondue never gets hot enough to denature. It’s also why baking calls for eggs, to allow the oil and water to mix together long enough for the flour to begin cooking.

And the nice part about sodium citrate is that it has a much higher heat tolerance. It’s also a very “dense” emulsifier. In other words, a little bit of sodium citrate will go a long way. You don’t need to worry about accidentally burning your cheese sauce and making it clumpy. (You can still burn the cheese, but it won’t destroy the texture.) If you’re ever making queso for tex-mex, a scoop of sodium citrate will ensure it stays wonderfully smooth.

If you don’t want to bother with the $5 bag, (which honestly you should just go ahead and get, but whatever…) then you can make a dirty form at home with lemon juice and baking soda. Combine the two, and the resulting product is trisodium citrate. Basically, take a squeeze of lemon juice, and stir baking soda in until it stops fizzing. Now you have something that tastes vaguely lemony, but will melt cheese like a motherfucker. Lab grade sodium citrate doesn’t have that lemony flavor, so it won’t skew the flavor of your dishes.

You have to keep the rind on if you're baking it. Also, the rind is edible and (if you like mushrooms) tasty!

You have to add a bit starch.

Get some sodium citrate powder, it's the secret to making smooth cheese sauce.

Really low heat is my trick, all cheeses have a point where they separate and Brie is already basically melted to begin with, so just get it extra warm but not hot and you're golden.

No. But you can fry until crisp in whale blubber. Dust fried cheese and maggots with midges and serve with a garnish of dung beetle legs.

My guess is it's Emmentaler.

This seems to be a very American infographic.

Same for raclette. That's a process, not a cheese name. Might as well call Gruyere "fondue cheese"

Actually that's pretty close to the proper pronouncation wah-kha-ka