MW03

Thanks. Will try today.

I made a gruyere potato gratin last night.

Used a cup of water, 1.25 tsp citrate, 8oz shredded gruyere. Made the 'queso' and added 8oz heavy cream. Salt pepper and nutmeg to season. Added to layers of thin sliced potatoes sprinkled with Parmesan and baked at 400 for 1hr. Turned out outstanding. Maybe the best gratin potatoes I've had

made some last night! it was great!






my recipe (from modernist cuisine plus a little):

11g NaCitrate
2 cups shredded white cheddar
2.5 cups shredded monterey jack
1.25 cups water
1 small can of green chilis
4oz or so of left-over chicken fajita meat








[This message has been edited by bmc13 (edited 12/9/2013 10:12p).]

Another thread has me wondering if anyone has tried Na Citrate cheese grits

How was the consistency using the Modernist Cuisine recipe, bmc?

it was a little runny for my liking. next time i'm going to cut back on the water a little or add more cheese or something. also, i started adding the cheese once the water was around 100F. i didn't wait until it was already simmering like the the recipe requests because i tried that the first time and i ended up with a ball of cheese instead of a sauce/dip.




[This message has been edited by bmc13 (edited 12/10/2013 10:07a).]

I found the immersion blender really helps, vs whisking by hand.

Never had a problem with whisking by hand. Just add a little bit at a time.

i did it both ways. it was fine either way, but i think the sauce did end up much smoother, no surprise i guess.

I've only used a whisk, but I'm not sure how it could have come out any smoother. Small amounts at a time, med-low heat and a little patience... Perfect every time.

The goods arrived today.

Hilariously excited to make some later this weekend.

I want to try and make a mozzarella sauce with garlic, white pepper, and fresh oregano for drizzling over bruschetta.

Also, a dark beer and cheddar dip for soft pretzels.

quote:

---

I want to try and make a mozzarella sauce with garlic, white pepper, and fresh oregano for drizzling over bruschetta.

Also, a dark beer and cheddar dip for soft pretzels.

---

Wow, those both sound amazing! I just got mine in the mail the other day and looking forward to making some legit queso next week. I'm probably more excited about using some Tillamook cheddar to make a dip, and your idea of beer plus cheddar for soft pretzels makes my mouth water.

Tillamook cheddar FTW. I could eat an entire loaf of that in one sitting.

Testing it out tonight with a mix of gruyere and fontina, and sauted a bit of garlic, some jalapenos, and some bacon.

20 minute update:

It's all gone. Pretty damn delicious.

Doing a "queso bar" this weekend for a holiday party. Making a jack cheese base and then a bunch of mix-ins so attendees can choose what they want in their queso.

Made some tonight. Good lord the stuff flew.

Probably put a little too much onion in it and I'd like to use some different cheeses next time.

When I heated my batch back up in the microwave, it became really thin and didn't firm back up until it cooled back off.

Have y'all had this problem?

I reheat mine in a Pyrex bowl, double boiler-style.

quote:

---

Doing a "queso bar" this weekend for a holiday party. Making a jack cheese base and then a bunch of mix-ins so attendees can choose what they want in their queso.

---

great idea

So the Modernist method for Mac and Cheese has no crunch topping (I prefer panko). Anyone done it and baked with a crunch topping? I assume no issue, but just want to verify.

My thinking is make it tonight, put in fridge, add topping tomorrow and bake.

I just ordered 50 grams. How fast do you guys find you are going through this stuff?

In theory, that would make about 10 batches of queso with 8oz of cheese.

quote:

---

So the Modernist method for Mac and Cheese has no crunch topping (I prefer panko). Anyone done it and baked with a crunch topping? I assume no issue, but just want to verify.

My thinking is make it tonight, put in fridge, add topping tomorrow and bake

---

Did a baked mac version for Thanksgiving. I didn't use breadcrumbs but I topped with more cheese and broiled for a few minutes. No issues with the sauce.

In subsequent reheatings, it maintained it's consistency better than any other cheese sauce (standard bechamel base) I had previously made so I assume cooking the whole batch and reheating with topping should be fine.

quote:

---

I just ordered 50 grams. How fast do you guys find you are going through this stuff?

---

11g per batch for me

Got mine from Amazon yesterday. Gonna try the OP's recipe tonight for starters and experiment from there.

The Mac and Cheese turned out awesome. Did a little over 2 cups whole milk, 2.5 tsp sodium citrate and 24 oz cheese (16 cheddar, 8 jack). I mixed with shells, put in fridge overnight, then shredded a little more cheese on top and put panko on. Baked, then finished with a broil.

One guy who said he didn't like mac and cheese helped himself to thirds.

quote:

---

The Mac and Cheese turned out awesome. Did a little over 2 cups whole milk, 2.5 tsp sodium citrate and 24 oz cheese (16 cheddar, 8 jack). I mixed with shells, put in fridge overnight, then shredded a little more cheese on top and put panko on. Baked, then finished with a broil.

One guy who said he didn't like mac and cheese helped himself to thirds.

---

Amount of pasta?
Bake time and temp?

Pound of shell noodles. Put in at 350 and just watched. Think it ended up being around 45 minutes.

And that made a lot. I fed 16 people brisket, Mac and cheese and baked beans. Still had some left.

Oh man. Bought a bag of Italian mixed cheese, added some sautéed garlic and basil with salt and pepper. So damned delicious.

Did you use Italian mix as type of queso or other purpose? Care to elaborate?

[This message has been edited by coppag92 (edited 12/21/2013 9:01p).]

I'm not sure what you're asking. If it's about the italian mix cheese, I just picked up one of those "6 cheese blends" from the grocery store. I think it was mozzarella, provolone, asiago, parmesan, and a couple of others.

If you're asking what I used the "cheese dip" with, I made a pretty basic red sauce (olive oil, yellow onion, garlic, basil, san marzano tomatoes, salt, sugar) then what I call "bruschetta salsa", and then the dip and just served it with some toasted french bread. Kind of like italian chips and dips.

Method was boil 1 cup of water with 1.25 tsp sodium citrate. Reduce heat to medium and add all 8 oz of the cheese in 4 stages while stirring until smooth and thick. Then I added about 2 cloves of minced garlic that I had sauteed in like 1 tablespoon of olice oil. Tossed in some chopped fresh basil and oregano with salt to taste and bit of red pepper flake.

If anyone is curious about the the "bruschetta salsa", it's basically:

- a can of stewed tomatoes, drained and diced up
- about 5 fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 3 cloves of finely diced raw garlic
- 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste (I use a lot)

Just dice your tomatoes pretty fine and then mix all that up in a bowl and serve. I will run mine in a blender or food processor a bit. It all depends on how smooth you like your "salsa".

In retrospect, i bet it would be really good served with some wonton wrapper chips like they do at Johnny Carino's.

[This message has been edited by MW03 (edited 12/23/2013 9:39a).]

....as a sauce for bruschetta. that was it. thanks

[This message has been edited by coppag92 (edited 12/23/2013 10:14p).]