Creamy Alka-Seltzer Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe

Warning: This system solely works with aspirin-free Alka-Seltzer, which is bought beneath the Alka-Seltzer Gold label. The ingredient checklist ought to solely comprise anhydrous citric acid, potassium bicarbonate, and sodium bicarbonate. Don’t, beneath any circumstances, use Alka-Seltzer with aspirin on this recipe: The presence of aspirin may pose extraordinarily severe well being dangers to anybody who consumes it on this cheese sauce and should be prevented.

What if I instructed you that there is a solution to make a cheese sauce as clean and creamy as a jar of Velveeta from nearly any melting cheese with nothing greater than a single innocuous ingredient that’s probably already in your drugs cupboard. That is proper: no emulsifying salts that require a special order, no futzing with cornstarch and evaporated milk, and no floury roux. The key ingredient is Aspirin-Free Alka-Seltzer and at this time is the day that I reveal its cheese-sauce-making superpower to the world. It has been hiding in plain sight all alongside, every pill formulated with just a few primary components that drive a chemical response that, sure, can deal with indigestion, however—as can be clear when you perceive the science—are simply pretty much as good at making the elusive good cheese sauce for nachos and mac and cheese.

That is life-changing stuff. Able to find out how and why?

Why a Easy and Creamy Cheese Sauce Is So Arduous to Make

Take a slice of fine unprocessed melting cheese like Swiss, mozzarella, provolone, or cheddar and put it between bread slices. Grill it and the cheese melts completely, making a wealthy, gooey, scrumptious deal with. However if you attempt to make a cheese sauce by heating those self same cheeses with water, you get a damaged, clumpy mess as an alternative of a shiny and clean sauce. Why is that?

Pure cheeses do not combine properly with water when heated, as an alternative separating into tight little tacky clumps and swimming pools of oil and water. It is a pure consequence of cheesemaking: To make cheese, enzymes like rennet or acids like lemon juice are added to take advantage of, inflicting the proteins within the milk to coagulate into largely insoluble, calcium-rich curds that may be separated from the liquid whey and changed into cheese.

The phrase “insoluble” is essential right here—the milk proteins which have shaped these curds do not wish to dissolve again into water. So how can we anticipate them to mix easily with water once more when it comes time to make a cheese sauce? The reply is, we will not, not with out some assist to resolve the issue, not less than. The helper on this case is a few form of emulsifier, equivalent to starches like flour or emulsifying salts like sodium citrate.

How Emulsifying Salts Like Sodium Citrate Make Easy and Creamy Cheese Sauce Doable

Consider sodium citrate like a clean operator: It has a robust affinity to calcium, and, when added to melting cheese, it will probably draw out calcium and swap it with sodium ions to type sodium caseinate. Sodium caseinate occurs to be essentially the most soluble type of caseinate, so as soon as this change occurs, the protein within the cheese is ready to each absorb extra water and disperse properly in it, trapping fats, and resulting in a extra steady emulsion. The extra calcium the sodium citrate is ready to swap, the higher the emulsion works.

That is the way you get that dreamy, creamy cheese sauce all of us need. In truth, that is how processed cheeses like American cheese are made: Emulsifying salts are added, guaranteeing completely good melting it doesn’t matter what.

The one downside with American cheese is it is not the very best within the taste division. If you wish to use your favourite cheese and nonetheless get a sauce as clean as what American cheese is able to, it’s essential to add the sodium citrate your self. In fact meaning making the trouble to purchase and inventory sodium citrate in your pantry—not unimaginable on this day of on-line ordering, however it’s not precisely the form of stuff you may choose up at your native Walmart.

Know what you should buy at your native Walmart? Aspirin-free Alka-Seltzer. Perhaps you do not even want to purchase it, possibly you have already got it—I would not be stunned if the best reader of this text can be a major Alka-Seltzer buyer…that is wealthy meals, in any case.

The Cheese-Making Magic of Alka-Seltzer, Defined

If you learn the components on a field of non-aspirin Alka-Seltzer, you will see three most important components: sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, and anhydrous citric acid. You might also see some flavorings and different non-active components. When you see aspirin within the components, completely don’t use the Alka-Seltzer for this culinary objective (see warning on the prime of this text).

Let’s break down what these three energetic components are:

• Sodium bicarbonate is simply baking soda by its chemical identify. It is alkaline, which means it has a excessive pH, and reacts with acids to create carbon dioxide, which is why it’s an efficient leavening agent. We use it on a regular basis within the kitchen, there’s nothing to fret about there.
• Potassium bicarbonate is one other alkaline ingredient with frequent culinary makes use of. Like sodium bicarbonate, it may be used as a chemical leavener, and it is usually a typical ingredient in membership soda. As soon as once more, no worries, that is protected stuff.
• Anhydrous citric acid is a type of the identical form of acid that makes lemons and limes naturally bitter. “Anhydrous” simply means the substance is in a dry type. The acid is a vital a part of the formulation of Alka-Seltzer for a similar purpose acids in baking essential to make alkaline leaveners like baking soda work: They react with one another to type carbon dioxide gasoline.

However let’s take a better have a look at the chemical response between citric acid and a type of alkaline components, as a result of the ensuing carbon dioxide is only one of some merchandise, and so far as our cheesemaking pursuits go, it is not the vital one. If you drop an Alka-Seltzer pill into water, this is what occurs:

3NaHCO₃ + C₆H₈O₇ —> 3CO₂ + 3H₂O + Na₃C₆H₅O₇

Sodium bicarbonate +  citric acid = carbon dioxide + water + sodium citrate

As soon as added to water, Alka-Seltzer rapidly begins effervescent as a result of it makes carbon dioxide gasoline. The cool half is, all the response occurs with no need any additional warmth (not like another leaveners…cough! baking powder…cough!). 

And guess what? The salt made throughout this response is our beloved sodium citrate! See, you do not have to seek out sodium citrate, you may simply make it through the magic of an Alka-Seltzer pill and a few water.

Utilizing Alka-Seltzer to Make Cheese Sauce

This recipe is very easy, you do not even want a saucepan. Simply use a microwave and a microwave-safe bowl. Put an unique flavored aspirin-free Alka-Seltzer pill in water —do not use lime or different flavors, as they will have an effect on the cheese sauce style. Let the fizz settle, which you are able to do forward of time (we’re after the ensuing salt, not the bubbles). When you rush and add cheese earlier than it is performed fizzing, you will get foamy cheese, which is not as tasty as clean sauce.

Now, add unsalted butter, which helps steadiness the sodium from the sodium citrate and microwave till the butter melts.

After that, add a shredded melting cheese—you understand, cheeses like cheddar, Gruyere, Swiss, provolone, Jack, that form of stuff (not soft-rind cheese like brie, and never aged cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano). This may be cheese you shredded your self, or a pre-shredded cheese. (Pre-shredded cheeses typically have anti-caking brokers like tapioca starch in them; these anti-caking starches will additional improve the creamy texture of the sauce, however the recipe works with or with out them.) Microwave in 30-second intervals till the sauce is scorching and bubbly. It might appear runny at first, however it’ll thicken rapidly because it cools.

Lastly, add any flavorings it’s your decision, like cayenne, mustard, milk powder, jalapeños, or black pepper. After that, your sauce is prepared for nachos, mac and cheese, or the rest.

And in case you get a nasty case of heartburn, properly, you are in luck, as a result of you have already got the Alka-Seltzer prepared and ready.