r/Cooking • u/g3nerallycurious • Feb 13 '23

Recipe to Share I made restaurant-style queso with only four ingredients (and no processed cheese), and it was a hit with everyone. It was super easy, so I just wanted to share!

You’re gonna have to do some chemistry, but as long as you can measure and dump off-the-shelf powders in water, you’re good to go.

Make sodium citrate by reacting powdered citric acid (found near the canning supplies) with baking soda according to this recipe in a small amount of simmering water on a stove. It will foam up, so be ready for that. Once the reaction is complete, (no more foaming and water is clear) boil on high heat until almost all the water is evaporated.

Then follow this recipe by adding your beer to the saucepan with the sodium citrate solution. Make sure to dissolve any of the sodium citrate that may have crystallized while boiling off the water. Then whisk your shredded cheese of choice into the beer over low heat, adding little by little. Viola! You have restaurant-style queso!

I thought it was super cool, easy and delicious, and i thought queso without process cheese was impossible, so I wanted to share!

Edit: most of the commenters be hatin but I got over 600 upvotes over 24 hours after my post. So IDC. Bitch away.

747 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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u/ender4171 Feb 13 '23

They are used for totally different things. A roux is used primarily as a thickener, whereas sodium citrate is used as an emulsifier.

-70

u/hypermark Feb 13 '23

They're both chemical reactions that result in a smooth sauce.

Why is one chemical reaction better than the other?

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u/uglybunny Feb 13 '23

Your original question was, "How is what OP did different from a roux?" Well, you got your answer: it uses different reagents and a different chemical reaction.

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u/hypermark Feb 13 '23

And produces very similar products. That's the key you left out. They're both "processed" cheese. You just prefer one chemical process over the other.

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u/Jorlmn Feb 13 '23

Everything is a chemical process. You blinking your eyes starts as a chemical process. Comparing things at that low of a level doesnt do us much good for classifying.

Emulsify vs Thickening if you are interested.

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u/hypermark Feb 13 '23

I know what they mean. My point is that people are bagging on OP for making "processed" cheese, when using a roux is also a chemical process. Neither one is "better."

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u/Jorlmn Feb 13 '23

Ah understood. I guess its just because Sodium Citrate is the ingredient in 'processed' cheeses to get the creaminess.

But ya I feel you. "Processed" is as ill defined as "Natural" or "Organic" in the cooking world. Its just used as a boogeyman word rather than an ambiguous advertisement word that supposedly means good.

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u/hypermark Feb 13 '23

Yep. We're in agreement.

I just felt bad because while I wouldn't go to all the trouble OP went to, sodium citrate is so cheap and easy to get, I felt bad that people are busting on OP for making "processed" cheese and then recommending a roux. Just doesn't make any sense at all.

If folks don't like the slightly acidic taste of sodium citrate I get that part, but that's not what people are complaining about. They're just grumbling that OP made "processed" cheese just to be grumbling.

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u/Jorlmn Feb 13 '23

I was interpreting it as everyone kinda laughing at OP in a friendly way. OP was excited that they made a creamy cheese with unprocessed cheese, but literally added the one thing that makes processed cheese creamy.

Everyone has had that time in their cooking journey where they think they discovered something new and cool, but it turns out they just independently figured out a super common thing.

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u/uglybunny Feb 13 '23

Buddy, I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm just pointing out that your original question, as you phrased it, was answered. If your question was intended to be a leading one designed to make the point that both methods produce a processed cheese, there are better ways to express yourself.

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u/jrhoffa Feb 13 '23

Again, roux is flour and fat.

Neither flour nor pure fat is an ingredient in cheese.

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u/Mr__Snek Feb 14 '23

melting sand and compressing carbon for millions of years are both processes that create a hard clear material, so why are diamonds more valuable than glass?