Ultrabeefy Nacho Cheese Sauce
By Sasha MarxPublished on January 30, 2017
Yield
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
Before You Begin
For this sauce to taste nice and beefy, you need to render out ½ cup of beef fat. If your butcher will grind you 70 percent lean ground beef, you will only need 1 pound. The seasoned crispy ground beef makes a great nacho topping. Briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water in step 1 raises the meat’s pH, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it’s cooked.
Any basic Swiss cheese will work here. During testing, we found that even a small amount of Swiss had a big impact on smoothness and stretch. According to Dean Sommer, cheese and food technologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Swiss cheese (the classic fondue cheese) “is at the top of the list for long body, intact casein, and bound insoluble calcium,” key attributes when it comes to melting and creamy mouthfeel.
You can buy sodium citrate by clicking here.
To achieve the smooth glossiness of stadium nacho cheese, stand immersion blender in cheese sauce and tilt saucepan so sauce covers blade. Blend sauce until shiny, about 30 seconds. This sauce is best served warm. If you have a slow cooker, you can hold it in there on the warm setting. If not, serve the sauce in a microwave-safe bowl so that you can easily reheat it in the microwave as needed (15 to 30 seconds on high power will do the trick).
Instructions
- Toss beef with 2 tablespoons water, baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt in large bowl until combined. Set aside for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, combine cheddar and Swiss in medium bowl.
- Line fine-mesh strainer with single layer of cheesecloth or coffee filter and set over heatproof bowl. Spread oil over bottom of 12-inch skillet and spread beef in even layer on top. Place skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon to break up clumps, until fat has rendered and beef is deep golden brown, about 45 minutes. Strain beef through prepared strainer. Transfer beef to large bowl and toss with chili powder and 1½ teaspoons salt; reserve for serving. You should have about ½ cup rendered beef fat.
- Whisk ⅔ cup water and sodium citrate together in small saucepan until sodium citrate dissolves. Bring to simmer over medium heat. Whisking constantly, gradually add cheese mixture, about ¼ cup at a time, to simmering water, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding next, about 2 minutes. (Mixture will be very thick.)
- Reduce heat to medium-low and whisk in rendered beef fat. Whisking constantly, gradually add 1 cup water. Scrape down saucepan with rubber spatula and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 45 seconds longer. (Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.) Remove saucepan from heat and either transfer sauce to serving bowl or make it extra-shiny with an immersion blender. Serve warm, with plenty of tortilla chips. And don’t forget to sprinkle on the reserved crispy, seasoned beef. (The sauce and beef can be refrigerated separately in airtight containers for up to 1 week.)
Yield
Serves 6 to 8Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
Store-bought nacho cheese sauce has a gooey, melty texture but barely tastes like cheese. Aged cheeses, such as cheddar, have rich, complex flavor but make for grainy sauces when melted. We think we’d all be a lot better off if we lived in a cheese sauce world where we didn’t have to choose between texture and flavor—and it turns out, we don’t. In 2011 Modernist Cuisine popularized the use of sodium citrate, an emulsifying salt, to defy cheese logic and make gooey nacho cheese from the good stuff.
The base of this cheese sauce is a combination of sharp aged cheddar and Swiss cheese. We wanted to see if we could sneak the essence of a cheeseburger into our superpowered cheese sauce. The ground beef layered on top of nachos should be a rich addition of flavor and texture, but sometimes it can be dry and bland. What if we introduced actual beef flavor to the cheese sauce itself? We seared some ground beef, rendering all its fat. I then strained out the beef and reserved it (crispy chili!), and whisked all that delicious beef fat right into our aged cheddar cheese sauce. If you’re into cheese and you’re into sliders, you will be into this dip. Put it on tortilla chips, fries, cheesesteaks, burgers (so meta), and anything else you can dream up.
Before You Begin
For this sauce to taste nice and beefy, you need to render out ½ cup of beef fat. If your butcher will grind you 70 percent lean ground beef, you will only need 1 pound. The seasoned crispy ground beef makes a great nacho topping. Briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water in step 1 raises the meat’s pH, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it’s cooked.
Any basic Swiss cheese will work here. During testing, we found that even a small amount of Swiss had a big impact on smoothness and stretch. According to Dean Sommer, cheese and food technologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Swiss cheese (the classic fondue cheese) “is at the top of the list for long body, intact casein, and bound insoluble calcium,” key attributes when it comes to melting and creamy mouthfeel.
You can buy sodium citrate by clicking here.
To achieve the smooth glossiness of stadium nacho cheese, stand immersion blender in cheese sauce and tilt saucepan so sauce covers blade. Blend sauce until shiny, about 30 seconds. This sauce is best served warm. If you have a slow cooker, you can hold it in there on the warm setting. If not, serve the sauce in a microwave-safe bowl so that you can easily reheat it in the microwave as needed (15 to 30 seconds on high power will do the trick).
Instructions
- Toss beef with 2 tablespoons water, baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt in large bowl until combined. Set aside for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, combine cheddar and Swiss in medium bowl.
- Line fine-mesh strainer with single layer of cheesecloth or coffee filter and set over heatproof bowl. Spread oil over bottom of 12-inch skillet and spread beef in even layer on top. Place skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon to break up clumps, until fat has rendered and beef is deep golden brown, about 45 minutes. Strain beef through prepared strainer. Transfer beef to large bowl and toss with chili powder and 1½ teaspoons salt; reserve for serving. You should have about ½ cup rendered beef fat.
- Whisk ⅔ cup water and sodium citrate together in small saucepan until sodium citrate dissolves. Bring to simmer over medium heat. Whisking constantly, gradually add cheese mixture, about ¼ cup at a time, to simmering water, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding next, about 2 minutes. (Mixture will be very thick.)
- Reduce heat to medium-low and whisk in rendered beef fat. Whisking constantly, gradually add 1 cup water. Scrape down saucepan with rubber spatula and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 45 seconds longer. (Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.) Remove saucepan from heat and either transfer sauce to serving bowl or make it extra-shiny with an immersion blender. Serve warm, with plenty of tortilla chips. And don’t forget to sprinkle on the reserved crispy, seasoned beef. (The sauce and beef can be refrigerated separately in airtight containers for up to 1 week.)
Gift This Recipe
Enjoyed this dish? Let others know by sharing it as a gift recipe.
Key Equipment
Keep Exploring
0 Comments