Are your homemade nachos lumpy, clumpy, and greasy? Maybe you've been making nachos wrong your
entire life, but once you learn a few pointers, you can start serving up heaps of cheesy goodness.
"Well, there is never a bad time for tortilla chips with melted cheese,
right? And today is nacho average day, either."
Here are some common mistakes people make when making nachos...
According to Redditors, the key to making perfectly smooth and
creamy nacho cheese sauce is sodium citrate . As one advocate puts it,
"It keeps melted cheeses from breaking, basically turning everything into Velveeta."
This secret ingredient may sound a bit off-putting thanks to its name,
but Huffington Post reports that
"[It's] just a form of salt that works as an emulsifier."
And this magical ingredient prevents cheese from separating,
which can create a greasy, clumpy mess. Consider us sold.
As tempting as it may be to upgrade your nacho cheese sauce with fancy options like
aged sharp cheddar, it's not a great idea if you want creamy consistency.
For a nice and gooey nacho cheese, you need to stick to softer cheeses that contain plenty of
moisture: think mild cheddar or jack cheese, both of which were made for melting. Aged cheeses like
Parmesan and extra-sharp cheddar tend to be crumbly, which can lead to a grainy texture.
Thankfully, there's a way to get the very best of both worlds - a nice melty cheese that still
packs a wallop of taste. According to the website Kitchen Conundrums, you just need
to use those crumbly cheeses in moderation. For example, combining 2 cups of softer cheese with
1/2 cup of aged cheese will give your sauce a flavor boost without sacrificing the consistency.
You might be tempted to make your nachos with pre-shredded cheddar and jack cheese,
but it's not the best idea, and you'll be mad about the results. These cheeses tend
to be coated in a combination of ingredients to prevent mold and clumping. Unfortunately,
those ingredients also prevent the cheese from melting properly, so consider yourself warned!
If you've been searching for a recipe that tastes just like ballpark nacho cheese, you've
come to the right place. Perhaps you've tried to replicate the taste at home but come up short.
According to Redditors, that's because you haven't added pickled jalapeño brine to the recipe.
You'll find this juice in any store-bought jar of pickled jalapeños, but the recipe
isn't particularly complicated, to say the least. According to one Redditor,
you only need one other ingredient… and it's quite easy to find. As this Redditor put it:
"[Just use] canned Rico brand cheese mixed with some of the brine from pickled jalapeños."
Simple… and simply delicious.
If you're making your nacho cheese sauce with a roux you've probably
found that the sauce tastes somewhat like raw flour and it's lumpy to boot.
In case you don't know, a roux is a thickening agent made of flour and fat that's used to
make sauces. For nacho cheese sauce, you'd use a white roux… and since it's not cooked very long,
it could taste like raw flour. But it's easy to avoid this outcome: Just cook
the flour thoroughly in the fat for about 5 minutes, until the raw flour smell is gone.
The lumpiness can be avoided, too. Once your fat and flour mixture is well-combined and cooked,
slowly whisk the milk into the roux. But seriously: do it slowly. By adding
just a little bit of milk at a time, you'll incorporate all the flour from
the bottom of the pan, which will result in a super-smooth cheese sauce. In a word? Yum.
"It's nacho time! How many of these did we order?"
We totally get it. When you're craving nachos, it's hard to wait for the cheese
to melt over a low flame. But cranking up the heat will almost definitely result in failure.
According to ThermoWorks, there is a just-right temperature at which to melt your cheese.
For example, that temperature reportedly happens to be150 degrees when it comes to cheddar cheese.
Going above that melting point will reportedly cause the proteins to seize up.
Once that happens, your cheese will turn into a separated, oily mess, and there's no going back.
For the meltiest, creamiest results, finely shred your cheese, and let it come to room temperature
before heating. If you follow these two steps, you won't have to use as much heat to reach the
melting point. Good thing, too — because lower heat equals better nacho cheese. Excellent.
Fans of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese are certainly familiar with those packets
of neon orange-cheese powder that come in every box. Well, guess what? You can
now buy dehydrated cheddar cheese powder to sprinkle directly onto popcorn and vegetables,
or quickly whip up some Liquid Cheese Goodness. As one Redditor revealed,
"It's a little insane, but you can work lovely nacho-cheese miracles with dehydrated cheese
powder. If you want it like stadium/bowling alley/cafeteria nacho cheese, a little of this
stuff rehydrated with butter & water, seasoned to taste, is like childhood coming back to life.
It's gross, but it's made of real cheese originally, so maybe it's less gross."
Less "gross"? Actually, we're pretty sure they meant to write,
"These nachos will be very delicious and you should eat them all immediately." Let's eat!
"Go!"
"Leon, I can't give you the Heimlich, so you better chew."
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