Hi Everyone,
Life is getting better for me, things have calmed down a bit and I'm nesting again as a renter for another year. Hopefully the spring of 2020 will bring me a property suitable to buy! Until then, I'm getting back to normal, which means...
CHEESE!!!
I took on an easy project this week, American Cheese. If you think of Kraft Singles or Velveeta, you're on the right track!
Ideally I would have made this with my homemade cheeses, but since I didn't have any made for nearly a year now (eek!) I headed to my local cheese shop for some good cheeses to use in this. Anyone can make it, it's so easy!
And it melts well! My cheese is white because I used white Cheddar, but if you use orange Cheddar, you'll get a nice orange colour to it.
The ingredients are simple, here is the recipe!
Click here for a printable copy of the American Cheese recipe.
Click here for a printable copy of the Sodium Citrate recipe.
Click here for a printable copy of the American Cheese recipe.
Click here for a printable copy of the Sodium Citrate recipe.
American Cheese
Ingredients
For the cheese:
1 tsp Kosher salt
150ml whole milk
2 tbsp butter
4 tsp Sodium Citrate (you can make this at home, I'll show you how!)
300g shredded Cheddar
300g shredded Monterey Jack, Colby or really any other cheese you like
For the Sodium Citrate:
1/4 cup filtered water
25g citric acid
33g baking soda
Directions
Make your Sodium Citrate: Mix the water and citric acid together in an oven proof dish. Slowly add the baking soda. It will fizz like crazy because it's releasing CO2. It took me about 20 minutes to mix the baking soda into the mixture before it stopped fizzing and looked more clear. Bake in a 250F oven for about 3-4 hours until it's crystallized. It'll take some elbow grease to scrape it all off the pan, but do it, you need it! The last step is to make it into a powder. I have a mortar and pestle which works very well.
Make your Cheese:
1. Shred your cheeses before you start!
2. Add the salt, milk, butter and Sodium Citrate to a pot. Mix well and heat to a simmer.
3. Add the shredded cheese a little at a time until it melts smoothly.
4. Pour into a buttered foil loaf pan (or any other mould). Act quickly because it hardens fast! Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge overnight.
After one night in the fridge, it hardened pretty well, though there was some milk residue on the corners which I blotted off with a paper towel. It easily came out of the buttered pan. Next time I will make half the recipe because it really only keeps about 2 weeks max in the fridge since there are no preservatives. But dang if it ain't a good American Cheese!!! :)
I got this idea from Larry at Deep South Texas. Click on the link to see his video!
16 comments:
When I was a kid all our grilled cheese sandwiches were with Velveeta. Mac and cheese too. Something about that creamy texture brings back good memories, but the ingredients make me shudder! Thanks for the recipe Rain!
You're welcome Leigh! :) Yes, I feel the same way, the memories of grilled cheese, mac and cheese and just cold cheese sandwiches on Wonder bread lol...now I can't even eat store bought sliced bread anymore, it's all air!!! This recipe would be so much better with homemade cheese and hopefully I can try that next year when I have some Cheddars ready! But until then, it's better than the grocery store stuff!
may be because we live in hotter part of land use of cheese is not common
still i remember that my grandma and my mom used to make cheese before yearly festival to add in home made sweets
you have mastery over cheese making i bet :)
Thanks Baili! Not a master....YET... :) I'm hoping to put more time into it this summer so I can hopefully make some really nice cheeses! :) What kind of cheese did you grandma and mom make?
That looks very easy. I will try this out since one of the kids is always asking for grilled cheese sandwiches
Looks so good, Rain! I'm glad to hear that you're back to your routine at home. Before you know it, you'll be searching for a home again. The universe has a plan for you. It's just a matter of time...and patience :)
Thanks Martha :) You are right about the Universe's plan! It wasn't supposed to happen yet. I'm getting back to life now and not worrying about next spring, I'll cross that bridge when I get there! Until then...CHEESE!!!!!
It's so easy Nik...you just have to buy some citric acid and you can get everything else at the grocery store.
Rain, my request to join the cheese forum was rejected! I was so surprised! I've never received a rejection like that before. I replied to inquire why, but I don't expect an answer. It's their forum so they have the right to accept and reject anyone they like; I'm just shocked is all. Especially since they have so little information about a person to go on. Oh well! I guess I'm destined to be an alone cheesemaker. :(
Leigh!!! What the hell??? That is totally ridiculous!!! If you got rejected, I assure you I will never frequent that forum again, NOR advertise it!! Sorry about that!! xx
Good news! They answered my query promptly. Apparently they've been dealing with an onslaught of spammers and my request got caught up in it that. So I'm in! Sorry for my panic. I just needed a sympathetic ear!
My ear is yours!!! Still though, that wasn't nice on their part!!! I gave them a little bit of Rain attitude lol! :)
Oh my! For the life of me I wouldn't want to moderate a forum! I've already been on and am finding all kinds of useful information. And I haven't even gotten to looking for Portuguese cheeses yet. They always say don't panic, take a deep breath. Whew.
You're so cute!!! :) Breathe my dear...actually the cheese forum is a WEALTH of information!!! I hope you enjoy it! I still don't like that they rejected you though....but honestly you'll find many a nice cheesemaker there to help you with any question you have!!! :)
Yummy cheese! I love cheese! Grilled cheese, mac and cheese, ohh, so good! LOL! Big Hugs!
Thanks Stacy :)
Post a Comment