For Smooth, Stable Cheese Sauces, Use Cornstarch and Evaporated Milk (2024)
I don't know much about football, but I do know that if you're stuck watching a game at your friend's house, for no discernible reason other than to see New York teams get creamed, you'll be much happier if you've got a bag of chips and a bowl full of cheese dip.
Cheese dip wasn't really a thing in my household when I was a kid. I was first introduced to it by the mother of one of my American friends, who, crucially, had access to the magic that is Velveeta. One moment, we were settling in to watch a bootleg VHS of The Mighty Ducks, and the next, there I was, sticking a chip into an unnaturally yellow pool of hot cheese flecked with bits of jarred salsa. The rest, as they say, is history.
What I didn't know at the time was that you don't need Velveeta to make a smooth cheese dip; all you need, as Kenji discovered years ago, is a little bit of cornstarch and some evaporated milk, and you can transform most cheeses from their semisolid state into a pourable consistency.
The reason Velveeta melts so readily into a puddle of uniform-seeming goo is that it includes sodium alginate, an emulsifying salt that's extracted from brown algae. (It performs a function similar to that of sodium phosphate, the emulsifying salt first stumbled upon by James Kraft circa 1912, which paved the way for the Kraft processed-cheese empire.) Basically, sodium alginate helps the natural emulsifiers contained within cheese (cheese, after all, is a gel),* creating an emulsion that can survive heating beyond the temperatures at which a cheese's emulsion will normally break.
*From Modernist Cuisine: "The casein proteins in milk coagulate to form a gel; they then settle out as curds. This process occurs at the outset of all cheese making. The gel traps the fat droplets in the milk, turning it into a solid emulsion. The solid gel makes cheese a very stable emulsion unless it is heated sufficiently to melt the gel, at which point the emulsion breaks."
If your goal is to produce a stable liquid emulsion with cheese, there are several routes you can take. In one of his two baked macaroni and cheese recipes, Daniel uses sodium citrate, a common emulsifying salt in the modernist pantry. Make a solution of it by whisking it into water or milk, then simply melt cheese into the solution; the sodium citrate will help keep the emulsion stable, just as sodium alginate does in Velveeta. You can also use Kenji's method for making cheese sauce, which relies on the same interplay between starch, liquid, and cheese as his three-ingredient, 10-minute macaroni and cheese recipe.
To increase the stability of the final emulsion, Kenji adds evaporated milk to the mix, which contributes a high volume of milk proteins without adding too much water. To get an idea of how proteins add stability to an emulsion, think of mozzarella, a low-fat, high-moisture, high-protein cheese. It takes very high temperatures to get mozzarella's fat and water to separate out. Compare that to cheddar, a high-fat, high-moisture, low-protein cheese, which starts leaking grease if you hold a piece in your palm for even a few moments.
Apart from the added milk proteins, the emulsion's stability depends on the inclusion of some kind of starch. In the macaroni and cheese recipe, that starch comes from the pasta itself, which is why we use only a bare minimum of water to cook the pasta, thereby increasing the concentration of starch in the cooking liquid. For a cheese dip or sauce, the addition of cornstarch serves a similar function: Starch molecules absorb water and expand, not only thickening the liquid phase of the sauce, but also physically preventing the proteins from binding into long, tangled strands and the fats from separating out and pooling. (Daniel uses cornstarch to play a similar role in his fondue recipe.)
The best way to incorporate the cornstarch is to coat the grated cheese in it, which ensures an even distribution and prevents the formation of annoying clumps. The great thing about this method is that by adjusting the ratios slightly, you can get different consistencies, without worrying about the resulting emulsion breaking. For dips, you'll want to use a tablespoon of cornstarch per pound of cheese, then add at least five ounces of evaporated milk. After that, you can use more evaporated milk to thin out your dip as much as you need.
For dips, you'll want to use a tablespoon of cornstarch per pound of cheese, then add at least five ounces of evaporated milk. After that, you can use more evaporated milk to thin out your dip as much as you need.
Those starch molecules thicken the sauce, while the concentrated milk proteins from the evaporated milk add that signature dairy flavor, without all the water you'd get from cream or regular milk. Translation? Smooth, shiny, perfectly emulsified cheese that doesn't clump, taste floury, or break into greasy pools.
Oil and water don't mix well, but the addition of an emulsifying agent helps bind the two together for a smooth texture. The emulsifier can be a protein such as egg, cream or the milk solids in butter or flour/cornstarch.
Potato starch also has the same thickening power as cornstarch, so you don't have to change the measurement. Substitute one tablespoon of potato starch for one tablespoon of cornstarch.
Add a thickener while you're making it–– adding cornstarch or flour to the liquid before adding (be sure to get out any clumps) can add some stability to your sauce.
Sodium citrate isn't just a fancy name. It's a culinary superhero, playing the dual role of emulsifier and stabilizer in our cheese sauce. This dynamic duo works wonders by preventing proteins from coagulating, ensuring our sauce stays smooth and velvety even at high temperatures.
Are You Adding Your Cheese All at Once? If you are, stop. Don't do it! Adding the sauce slowly, bit-by-bit, as you stir the liquid and pasta in your pot will make the cheese melt evenly and avoid clumping.
Commercially, cornstarch is often used as an anti-caking agent. When added to packaged goods like shredded cheese, cornstarch coats the cheese and helps to absorb moisture that would otherwise cause spoiling. This absorption process also helps prevent food from clumping over time.
Making a slurry with cornstarch and cold milk is how you will thicken your queso. A traditional slurry is a 1:1 liquid to cornstarch ratio, but for our queso purposes I used 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of milk.
This helps the entire mixture stay smooth and emulsified, resulting in a creamy sauce. He recommends tossing the shredded cheese with the cornstarch before cooking so it is evenly dispersed and does not form clumps when cooked.
Remove the saucepan from heat and slowly incorporate the cheese, whisking constantly. According to AlSawwaf, adding the cheese over heat can cause the fats and milk solids to separate, resulting in a lumpy sauce with a curdled texture — so always take the pan off the burner first.
It is most likely that it is the cheese in the sauces that is causing the sauces to curdle, or split. In particular some types of Cheddar cheese can let out a fair amount of oil during cooking at higher temperatures and this won't mix very well with the sauce in the dish.
Can You Fix Grainy Queso? In the hopes of achieving a smooth, creamy texture, remove the cheese sauce from the heat and let it cool. Vigorously whisk in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or a little cream to detangle protein molecules and eliminate the clumps.
Evaporated milk is a highly concentrated source of milk protein micelles—bundles of proteins that can act as powerful emulsifying agents—which help to keep the sauce creamy and smooth.
For every cup of grated cheese (about 3 ounces) you will need a quarter cup of water and a half-teaspoon of sodium citrate. Heat the water to a simmer, add the sodium citrate to dissolve, then whisk in the cheese of your choice a bit at a time until you get a smooth and creamy mixture.
According to Sharma, when whole milk is gently heated during the evaporation process, “the casein starts to get covered by the soluble whey proteins,” thereby protecting it from further heat damage, making evaporated milk less susceptible to curdling.
While it's delightful when used for sweet treats, evaporated milk is the secret to an incredibly tender cut of meat. Dairy in general is the key to supple meat, which is why you should always soak your lamb chops in milk and soak ground meat in heavy cream.
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