Hmmm... I follow his recipe pretty spot on (with amended 3/4 cup of milk) and it always comes out perfect. Do you give it a couple minutes to cool down?

Use less water or other liquid. It will tighten as it cools, but it can be really runny. This isn't as much of a problem with pasta because the cooling down and starch on the pasta tighten the sauce.

Just use less liquid, or use a thicker liquid. Or use a thicker liquid and less of it.

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So the last couple times I've made this it's been pretty runny and I've followed the OPs recipe exactly (just used rotel instead of fresh veggies cause I'm lazy). Any ideas on how to get it to thicken up?

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Same here, except I use real vegetables instead of Rotel. My last two batches have almost been like water

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Did you drain the rotel?

are you using the stuff from modernist pantry that you can get on amazon?

Yes, that's what I use. I also don't use rotel. I cut up the veggies.

I haven't made it in 3 or 4 months, so I will have to try again, and play around with it some.

Mine has been runny every time as well

Went to 2/3 cup water and 10 oz of cheese and it was perfect this time. No idea why, but ill keep this method up

Yep, less liquid and more cheese = thicker less runny consistency. When doing veggies or rotel in it kinda have to figure in the extra water from that ingredient.

Found my sodium citrate had been delivered last night and sitting on the porch, so I had to try to make some dip at 8:30. Man was it good! I cannot believe I have lived without this stuff. You have to understand, we have 3 teenagers and a house full of kids friends all the time and we go through Velveeta like no one's business. This was easy and tasted way better. All I had in the fridge was sharp chedder, so I shredded it up and cut up some jalepenos to put in it. We had some homemade salsa left over in the fridge from the night before and I added that after it was melted. Dang was it good!

I've never really had an issue with consistency.

8oz cheese, 3/4 cup of water, 1 1/4 tsp sodium citrate works for me. We did a big batch at Christmas and I went a over on the cheese ratio, which made it too thick. It's easy to adjust though with a bit of water or milk.

I was having consistency issues with the Modernist Cuisine method so I started using the ChefSteps method. No issues since. I have done the exact recipe in the link below and adapted it for Mac and Cheese by omitting the jalapeno and adding minced shallot and garlic, AWESOME.

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/nacho-cheese

So let's say that I go with 3/4 cup water to 1.25 tsp citrate and start making it and it gets too thick? Can I add a bit more water after I added the cheese and thin it back out?

If your cheese is too watery, I imagine its because the temp is too hot, you're adding the cheese too much at a time, or you're not whisking enough. If anything, mine at times comes out too thick, not too thin.

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If your cheese is too watery, I imagine its because the temp is too hot, you're adding the cheese too much at a time, or you're not whisking enough. If anything, mine at times comes out too thick, not too thin.

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I'd agree with this. Add it in slow, small quantities, not handfuls.

Maybe that's it. I've always just dumped it in

Just ordered more.

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So let's say that I go with 3/4 cup water to 1.25 tsp citrate and start making it and it gets too thick? Can I add a bit more water after I added the cheese and thin it back out?

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Yup. And if you end up with something to thin you can just cook some of the moisture off.

going to use this technique tonight to make a garlic cheddar sauce for broccoli rice. Any ideas for seasoning the sauce up? I'm thinking garlic and onion powder are going to give me the best result.

Just saute some onion and garlic instead.

1 1/4 cup water, 1 1/4 tsp sodium citrate, 8 oz sharp cheddar. Added 2 tsp of garlic powder and about 1/2 tsp black pepper, then added 2 cups of chopped steamed broccoli flowerettes.

Spooned that over some brown rice with crumbled bacon and served it with bbq chicken breasts from my liberated grill now that the storms seem to be done.

It was fantastic.

Damn! That sounds good. Will be trying that sometimes soon.

Annual bump to make it easier to find, and just because.

I made some homemade mac and cheese with this the other day. Holy moly, it was phenomenal.

Half extra sharp cheddar, half monterry jack. Mixed it all with elbow macarroni, then out it under the broiler for about 3-4 mins. Cooked up some jalapeno marinaded bacon and crumbled it over the top.

I wanted to make love to it. Was doubly awesome because i nailed the tuna steaks as well. Last couple of times i over cooked them, but this time they came out absolutely perfect.

I made some for the neighbors Fourth of July party. 3/4 sharp white cheddar with 1/4 gruyere. Topped it off with a panko/shaved Parmesan mixture and baked it. It was the first thing gone.

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Half extra sharp cheddar, half monterry jack. Mixed it all with elbow macarroni, then out it under the broiler for about 3-4 mins. Cooked up some jalapeno marinaded bacon and crumbled it over the top.

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I've used the cheddar/monterey jack combo a couple times, and it has worked out very nicely. This will probably be my go-to combo for mac and cheese now.

Finally ordered some, got a 1 pound bag of it for like $12 on Amazon. It arrived today, which happens to be the first day of "Hatch Chile Days" at Kroger...so....hatch green chile mac and cheese?

Your life will change

Wanted to try it out first before I wasted some perfectly good hatches.

Holy cow.

Used the Modernist recipe with milk. I took the easy way out with the "american casserole" shredded blend. Once the sauce came together I added a little paprika, garlic powder and black pepper.

My only complaints are that I needed to boil the pasta a minute or two longer and that my two year old was screaming at me for the last 10 minutes of the process.

I hope I dont eat all of it tonight.

Made a normal batch came out perfect. Tried upscaling....disaster.

Waaaaay to watery. Even though I used one cup water I nearly quadrupled the cheese. Still making cheese water basically.

AND the sodium citrate scale was way off. Basically having to eyeball it now and add dashes here and there. Dreading the taste of this.

I did use oily cheeses and pork sausage. Did the sausage last time and came out fine but using Colby and pepper jack now and I think that may have a large reason why it's coming out the way it is. Before I used multiple cheddars.

Question about this stuff; I live overseas in a place where cheese selection is pretty limited. Locally we can get provolone(fresh and smoked), gouda (that is harder, sharper, and more crumbly than any gouda ive had in the states or from the netherlands), mozzerella, and occasionally feta. We have a deep freezer full of cheddar we stock up on anytime we travel out of the area.

With the cheeses we have and can get, is it worth it trying to order some and have my family bring it when they visit for xmas? I'd like to play with it and see what kind of fondue/dip type stuff and mac&cheese i could come up with.

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Question about this stuff; I live overseas in a place where cheese selection is pretty limited. Locally we can get provolone(fresh and smoked), gouda (that is harder, sharper, and more crumbly than any gouda ive had in the states or from the netherlands), mozzerella, and occasionally feta. We have a deep freezer full of cheddar we stock up on anytime we travel out of the area.

With the cheeses we have and can get, is it worth it trying to order some and have my family bring it when they visit for xmas? I'd like to play with it and see what kind of fondue/dip type stuff and mac&cheese i could come up with.

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If I were in your shoes, it'd be worth it for me to just bust out that cheddar every once in a while and make some good queso since I assume there is none there. As far as working with those cheeses, I have 0 clue so will let others chime in.

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, the fact that you can make non-melty cheeses into melty cheeses is a big plus with this.

I seem to remeber someone making Lamb burgers with melted slices of feta,

I used it to make a Parmesan and Gorgonzola dip a while back. I think it will work with nearly any cheese.