Mr. Dishes: What are you making?
Me: Science.
Mr. Dishes: … So we’re having science for dinner?
To be fair, the molecular gastronomy trend has pretty much come and gone with its foams and spheres and general weirdness, but there are a few things that have hung around for the home chef to play with, and I’ve already used sodium citrate to good effect in my mac and cheese. Now I’m going to try Sodium Hexametaphosphate.
Q: Isn’t that what Erin Brockovich found in the water that gave Marg Helgenberger so much trouble?
A: No. It’s another emulsifying salt, and is also used in tooth whiteners. Fun facts.
Q: What kind of name is Marg anyway?
A: Nobody knows.
This is a weird recipe I found on Reddit and scribbled down, but now I can’t find it again to give the originator proper credit, so thanks and apologies to the random Redditor who posted it. But it involves taking a hard cheese like Parm or Romano and turning it into a soft, sliceable consistency like American cheese. Basically these emulsifying salts put the Kraft in Kraft Singles and the Ram in the Ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong.
300 g. Parmesan cheese, finely shredded
140 g. whole milk
9 g. sodium citrate
2 g. sodium hexametaphosphate
Usually I’m pretty snotty about using real Parmigiano Reggiano instead of “Parmesan”, but at $17/lb. (thank you very much, tariffs) I’m not experimenting with the good stuff. This will do. At least it’s not the green can – which also has it’s time and place. I’m not that snotty.
It all seems very complicated but it’s super easy. Just heat up the milk and scary chemicals, then gradually stir in the cheese until it all melts together into a smooth sauce. 300 grams of cheese is a lot more than you’d think, and it melts down into a lot less than you plan. I’d optimistically prepared a loaf pan then had to scramble for a small Tupperware dish to pour in the finished product to cool. But that’s really it. Cover with plastic wrap and cool in the fridge.
The end result is pure parmesan that feels like Kraft singles.
It’s kind of weird looking (and shaped) due to the last minute Tupperware container. What can you do with it? Well that I don’t rightly know. I think I’ll use it to top a new type of lasagna I’m working on, but it would be great for chicken parm – more melty and less clumpy. Great in mac and cheese. Amazing in grilled cheese? I can’t wait to experiment more in my spooky science laboratory. I mean kitchen.
illdothedisheslater 