 | | January 22, 2025 |  |
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| Like pineapple on pizza or Coke versus Pepsi, American cheese elicits strong opinions. Cheese snobs might turn up their noses at it, but many people enjoy an individually wrapped slice or two. Why? Well, mostly because of how it melts. Nothing else offers that same oozy, melty texture, and sometimes that's exactly what you're looking for. Sure, it'd be great if we could get, say, Swiss or Jack or even plain ol' cheddar to melt the same way, but that's just not how cheese works. Except … sometimes it is. It turns out, the ingredient that makes American cheese melt so beautifully can be added to other cheeses to achieve the same effect. Here's how it works. |
 | | Credit: Polina Tankilevitch/ Pexels |
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| Why American Cheese Is So Melty |
| American cheese begins as ordinary cheese. It's typically made from a blend of cheeses, all of them with different melting qualities. Most cheeses melt, and some have a nice pull, but in sauces, they have a bad habit of becoming grainy or not mixing properly. |
| The ingredient that makes the difference is sodium citrate (or alternative salts in the same broad family). Without wading too far into the science of meltiness, sodium citrate helps loosen the bonds that hold the cheese's protein molecules together. So if you love the gooeyness of American cheese but want more real cheese flavor, adding sodium citrate to other cheeses can make it happen. You don't even have to buy it (though you can, here) to give it a try — you can make your own with pantry ingredients. |
| Melting Cheese With DIY Sodium Citrate |
| All you need to make sodium citrate is baking soda and some citric acid from a big-box store (look for it with the canning supplies, if you don't already have it). Mix five parts baking soda with four parts citric acid, and you're done. Dissolve the amount you need in a tablespoon or two of water or other liquid, and then add it to your shredded cheese as it melts. Just like that, you have almost-instant cheese sauce. You can add water, beer, wine, or other liquid ingredients, as needed, to get the specific flavor and texture you want. There's no need to worry about the sodium citrate affecting the cheese's flavor as it's practically undetectable. |
| You can tweak this hack to achieve any texture from very firm (think Velveeta) to thin and runny, depending on how much cheese, liquid, and citrate you use. There is some math involved, but you can use a handy online calculator like this one to dial in the right proportions. |
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 | | Long Faux Fur Round Throw Pillow | | I recently added a round throw pillow to the collection on my couch, and it's given it some much-needed dimension and texture. This faux fur version from Target looks like a snowball, making it a great piece for transitioning your decor from Christmas to winter. It measures 16 inches in diameter and feels super soft and cushiony. Cozy up your space by positioning the pillow on a couch, armchair, or bed. — Kelsey Morrison, House Outlook Editor |
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| Fred Decker is a trained chef and former restaurateur. Since closing his restaurants over a decade ago he has been a prolific freelance writer, publishing several thousand articles on dozens of high-volume websites including Taste Of Home, Hunker, Tasting Table, Week&, eHow, and GOBankingRates. He lives on a rural acreage shared with a big garden, chickens, rabbits, and grandkids. |
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