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I had a bizarre experience with Velveeta this past weekend and was hoping you all could help me out.

I bought a block of Velveeta and some Rotel canned tomatoes to make a queso dip. I microwaved the dip for about 8 minutes total (taking out after 5 to stir.) After the 8 minutes were up, I started stirring the queso and noticed that the cheese was still clumpy.

So, I stuck the queso back in the microwave for four more minutes and when I took it out, it was worse than before.

This has never happened before, usually when it gets clumpy, you can just throw it in to the microwave for a little while longer and it comes out nice.

What happened here? Do some foods become clumpy when they are cooked too long? Could the Velveeta have been bad? I've made this several times, and I don't think I did anything different here.

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  • Griener - I've never had this experience with a dip made from Velveeta and Rotel. Did you put anything else in? I always add milk, for example.
    – justkt
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 16:01
  • @justkt I didn't put anything else in. I never do, milk is a good idea though.
    – Robert Greiner
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 17:33

4 Answers 4

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From what you're describing, I think the cheese (or cheese-like substance, in this case) 'broke' ... that is, the oil separated out of it.

I'd recommend:

  1. Don't melt it at full power
  2. Stir it multiple times during melting
  3. Melt the cheese (or "cheese-food") seperately, then add the tomatoes, so the tomatoes don't get hot, causing uneven heating.

I'm not sure if there's a good way to recover cheese once it's broken. Some starch will help keep dairy from breaking in the first place, but I don't think it'd help you in this particular case.

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  • I bet that's what happened, we microwaved it at full power and only took it out to stir once. I'll try your suggestions next time, thank you.
    – Robert Greiner
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 17:34
  • sorry Joe, forgot to mark your answer. Thanks for your help.
    – Robert Greiner
    Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 17:43
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If you stir it vigorously with a whisk for about three minutes while hot it will recover

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the cheese curdled---cook on lower setting about 50% and stir more often!!!

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Kraft has changed the velvetta. it is now crap instead of the cheese we all grew up with and love. Look at all the complaints on the web. Kraft is trying to save a little money and screwed up their product. Kraft will not admit it, but they should fire the person that is responsible and go back to the old product we love. I will never buy another box of Velvetta.
This happened at the end of of 2012 and all the velvetta now will not melt, the oil seperates out of it and it makes a gooey mess.

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  • 3
    This question was asked 4 years ago, so a change made in 2012 wouldn't have affected it.
    – Joe
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 18:17

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