Wanna know the secrete to making silky smooth cheese sauces?

I don’t know about you, but making a cheese sauce that was not grainy and still had a nice bold cheese taste always eluded me.  No matter what I tried, it just never came out right. I had picked up some awesomely big baking potatoes to go with a smoke I was planning and I wanted a loaded, cheesy potato to go with it.

Every once and a while I would search that thing called the internets for hints and tricks but none really worked.... until last night.
 
I finally ran across a post that suggested using sodium citrate, a natural salt of citric acid, to get the job done.  In the world of molecular gastronomy, sodium citrate is used as an emulsifier, calcium sequestrant, and as a preservative.  So I took a chance and ordered me some from America’s pantry, you know - Amazon, and put it to work.  Well whadda you know, the dang stuff works!  Just using the sodium citrate, a bit of water, milk and cheese I was able to make the smoothest, meltiest cheese sauce EVER!  I still need to play with the ratios a bit to get it to a consistency I like, but it was a total success.

You can find all the details in the article on the Modernist Cuisine web site - http://http//modernistcuisine.com/recipes/melty-queso-dip/

Use the ratios listed there as a guide and go from there. I used a 50/50 mix of freshly grated American and mild cheddar cheeses, cayenne pepper, a bit of water to dissolve the sodium citrate in, and milk to make up the rest.  The liquid was 80% of the cheese by weight.  While it was a bit too runny the taste was spot on to that of a mild nacho cheese sauce. I wound up adding more shredded cheddar to thicken things up a bit so next time I’m going to cut the liquid from 80% to 60%.  Basically what you get is a velveeta like product without all the extra “stuff” in it.  The added kicker is that you can alter the taste to your liking by using whatever cheese (or cheeses) you want and you can make it to the consistency you wish.