I want to make it a bit thicker than a standard Mornay, kind of a cross between a sauce and a dip.
I have a thick dip recipe, but I want some advice about a few processes. It calls for 1 Cup Whole Milk, .5 Cups Cheddar Cheese, shredded, 1 Cup Gruyere Cheese, shredded, 1/2 Cup Sour Cream. I’ve seen variations on the amounts of all those ingredients. I understand that may be due to the desired consistency.
For the basic roux, is it 2 tbl butter+ 2 tbl flour, 2 cup milk, 2 cups cheese. If I were to double the volume of cheese and milk, would the amounts of butter and flour be the same. I can always use more cheese to thicken things up, right?
Just as is in the article you posted, I have read so many times that sodium citrate/citric acid/“sour salt” is THE key to getting the right consistency to the sauce that I can’t even begin to think of making the sauce without it!
It’s not a difficult ingredient to find and doesn’t spoil. In addition, I think it’s useful for other recipes (including my Nana Pauline’s stuffed cabbage) and can be helpful for people like me who sometimes suffer from kidney stones…it can help dissolve them if you add a bit of it to drinking water!
This is just one of MANY links which talk about the benefits of citric acid for those who suffer from formation of kidney stones. They are sooo painful!
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
7
Surprisingly, the last time (I’ve had them three times) I passed a kidney stone it was painless, and it was fairly large (about a quarter of an inch). The first two times, though, were excruciating. I could post a pic of the last stone, but since this is Hungry Onion and not Passing Onion, I won’t.
I read the article. Since don’t have any evaporated milk, I took a few hints and winged it.
I used milk (12 oz) combined with cream cheese (4 oz,), 2 cup cheddar cheese, sauteed minced onion and 2 jalapenos, 2 level tbls corstarch, and some dehydrated pickled jalapenos and onions, a bit of cheese powder. and and1 tbl jalapeno vinegar.
It came out pretty good. I could identify from my past with the article about the effect of the cheese consistency “seizing up”, in terms of not achieving a silky creaminess, and maybe a hint of graininess at times.
I’'m gonna attribute that, at least in part, to the cornstarch. I’ll be using that in the future in this mornay/bechamenl type of application. And you don’t have to bother with the roux. I’ll have to wait until it cools for the final verdict, but it looks better than my last batch with flour.
The only disclaimer would be is I was looking for a sauce/dip, so I wanted it thick, and that looks like what I’m gonna have after it rests. I used double the cornstarch recommended by the article to achieve that, and I also has twice the milk product and cheese.
If your FP has a grating disk it should be fine. But if you’re just nuking the cheese with a blade I think grating it and mixing in the cornstarch will work better.
I made the evaporated milk. I reduced by half in two batches. the first in regular a non-stick pot, the second in a thick bottom stainless.
It came out much sweeter than I expected. I’m thinking that was at least in part because It took longer to reduce than expected in the non-stick. It didn’t manage the heat well and I had to keep it low to prevent it from bubbling.
I’d also like opinions on whether you would use sharp cheddar in this sort of application. I have read and experienced that it doesn’t melt smoothly for these types of applications, sauces, etc., but the Serious Eats recipes says it will “prevent your cheese from breaking into curds”, and uses extra-sharp cheddar cheese.
Forgive the repetition, but for that nachos recipe, I mentioned that I used a homemade evaporated evaporated milk that was, IMO, sweeter than expected.
If I include the sour salt, can I just go with the rest of the recipe as-is but with regular milk?
In another thread someone pointed out to me that citric acid/sour salt is a different ingredient than sodium citrate…and that is what’s needed to make a smooth nacho (or other) cheese sauce. It’s not easy to purchase small amounts of sodium citrate, so I did some googling and found this for you:
Sodium citrate substitute:8
“If you are out, but find you have citric acid available and are in a pinch for time, you can also utilize the citric acid by mixing it with baking soda, which in the foaming reaction that follows, will neutralize the acidity which will then be aqueous sodium citrate. If you add too much baking soda, it will go from the characteristic tart flavor to somewhat bitter and you can add some citric acid to compensate. “
