Yeah, I did leave that out didn't I !
Don't think process cheese that comes out of plastic at the supermarket. It's a much different product despite the same words used. Also, it can be
any cheese.
Oh, what I made could be used for burgers, whatever. Tonight I had 2 of them on a hot ham sandwich. They melted beautifully just from the heat of the ham and I know they're made with genuine cheese and not out of whey and other cast off ingredients that are made to masquerade as food. But the Olde English process cheese we were able to buy at one time was tasty and most often used for burgers and was the impetus for this experiment. Made just a bit differently the same technique would make an excellent sauce for veggies or for mac and cheese and it will remain creamy and never break. I never made a cheese sauce for anything before (excluding mac and cheese) because I knew the problem with having the cheese break. Problem solved. The last mac and cheese I made was really good, but it broke. That'll never happen again. My mac and cheese will remain creamy from day one to the end of the leftovers and even out of the microwave.
Tomorrow I plan to make a grilled cheese for breakfast to see how it behaves there. I expect no problems.
Today I was just seeing what the sodium citrate (SC) would do. Making process cheese out of real cheese is about as tough as it gets. Try melting cheddar in a saucepan and see what happens. You'll get a mass of protein, water, and whatever in one mass, and the rest will be butterfat (oil) since it'll break at the drop of a hat once melted.
Using SC opens up a lot of possibilities. Cheese mixed with spices and allowed to firm up. My wife and I were discussing it and making our own cheese mixed with habaneros is high on our to do list. We can buy cheddar and habaneros, but not provolone and habaneros; it's up to us to make it. Now we can. Or cheddar and bacon. I hate to even mention the next to give the wrong impression... homemade velveeta, but not the junk that's sold commercially. Velveeta made with real cheese; out of something worth eating. Not very high on our list, but possible.
When we were kicking around possibilities I realized that I could make my own blue cheese rounds for burgers and they would melt nicely in use and be easy to handle. Or make golfball size cheese puffs (pate a choux) and pump them full of real cheese, not a mousse, that will remain soft at room temperature. I never heard of such a thing, but I'd make them in a heartbeat for a party because now I can. I know they'd be a hit because it's never been done before that I know of. Anyone who knows cheese would eat one and wonder, "now how the heck did he do that?". Many possibilities; too many to list them all.
My point was the very fact of the possibilities it opens up. It's like Sous Vide. Until one gets ones feet wet to see what it will do it's sort of, "OK, but what's it good for?". Having once experienced it as the cook one begins to understand. Couple it with other modernist techniques and it blooms. Such as the SC cheese mix put into a bag in the SV bath to keep it warm for pumping into pate a choux. Or making mashed potatoes just as creamy as one makes with lots of dairy (yet containing no dairy) in the SV bath just by adding some natural wheat enzyme and allowing it time to work in the SV bath. One makes the wheat enzyme; yet another technique. If one knows the basic technique of malting barley one can make the wheat enzyme since the technique is identical, yes the wheat is sweet from wheat malt. Technique builds on technique. Each technique has a cascade effect and doesn't stop with what has been learned, at least if it's basic technique we're discussing.
Sorry. I certainly can go on and on and on. I need sleep. 'later.
