How can I melt cheese for dipping?

Question

I love dipping things like pretzels in metled cheese.

I've done this lots of times at fairs and other places with 'pretzel carts', but I've never been able to replicate it myself at home.

Whenever I try it, I get really thick, stretch cheese with a layer of liquid oil sitting on top of it. It's gross, and not good for dipping.

So, how can I melt cheese into a nice, smooth, liquid that I can use for dipping in?
I'd love to learn if there's a particular type of cheese that will work best, how to heat the cheese, and any other tips that you can provide.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Normal cheese melts like that. It is made of proteins, fats, and water, and these separate when they are heated.

For dipping, you need processed cheese. It has additives which keep the fat, fluid and solids mixed in a smooth mass. Also, it really helps to use very slow and even heat. This is the easy option.

If you want to do it "for real", without processed cheese, you have to make a cheese fondue. It is traditionally made with Swiss cheese (I am fond of Appenzeller fondue), but you can use most types of semi-hard yellow cheese. It also contains some fluid, traditionaly white wine, and is emulsified with simple starch. It is preferable to have a special pan for this, as you can serve it heated. But if you make a big portion in a pan with a high thermal capacity, and make it immediately before serving, you can do without the special gear.

Answer 2

Try heating a couple table spoons of butter with some flour in a pot for a couple of minutes stirring with a wooden spoon then add enough hot milk to make the mixture smooth. Melting the grated cheese in flour prevents the oils from separating and the proteins from curdling.

(edit) If you want to search for a recipe, a Béchamel sauce with grated cheese added to it is called Mornay sauce

Answer 3

There is the good way and the cheap way.

The good way is fondue. Acid and / or alcohol are used to cut up the cheese proteins so it isn't stringy and the cheese is heated gently to not break the emulsion.

You can look up a recipe. <napoleonDynamite>There are, like, an infinity of them.</napoleonDynamite>

The cheap way is processed cheese product. This is most likely what you would have seen for casually dipping a pretzel.

This is a mixture of cheeses that are melted together with emulsifiers and gums and various other things that make them melt smoothly.

Velveeta would be the canonical brand name for this sort of thing.

Around here they like to mix salsa into it, use it as a dip, and call it 'queso' which, in my mind, is both a culinary and linguistic atrocity.

Answer 4

Without taking away anything from the previous answers, I want to add one more reference: Kenji Alt's article on making a perfectly smooth cheese sauce.

He describes the science in great detail, as well as providing lots of documentation of his various experiments. His final recipe comes down to a simple methodology:

• Toss the real cheese, shredded, with corn starch which will act as an emulsifier to help keep the sauce from breaking
• Add condensed milk to increase the amount of milk proteins and water
• Melt slowly

You will note that in many ways, this parallels the very classical fondue recipe that Rumtscho has referred to. It uses starch as an emulsifier and adds liquid (from the condensed milk, instead of wine). The major difference is substantially increasing the protein level (via the condensed milk).

Answer 5

I think you can just melt cheese. You need:

• a bowl.
• cheese. (shredded is best.) -a microwave. (duh.) -a fork.

Put the shredded cheese in the bowl. It depends on the time you put the microwave on.. First do a minute,if it's not melted, do 2 minutes. If it's still not, then set it on 3 minutes. Take the cheese out of the microwave and grab a fork. Stir it. There may be some greasy stuff in their.. Dump it out. So there ya go! You can add milk I think. I think it makes it less thick.