Queso blanco | Mexican-American cheese dip

in mexican-american restaurants particularly in the southern u.s they serve this cheese dip simply called queso dip or queso blanco it is truly the milk of the goddess i'm going to show you one way they make it in the restaurants then i'm going to show you a couple other ways that you might make it instead there's only a few core ingredients for liquid i found i get the best taste and texture with evaporated milk that is milk that has had some of its water boiled away at low temperature in a vacuum pan i think some people use cream instead that's good regular milk or water have yielded disappointing results for me i recommend this evaporated milk about 100 ml half a cup doesn't need to be precise then cheese monterey jack cheese is the classic mexican american cheese but lots of semi-firm cheeses could work cheddar would be fine and it would melt faster if i graded it but i don't feel like getting the greater dirty so i'm just tearing in chunks i've got maybe 100 or 120 grams of that four ounces or so then the key ingredient american cheese or any kind of processed cheese slice held together with emulsifying salts in this case sodium phosphate others might use sodium citrate i believe the white colored american cheese is more commonly used for this i'm just tearing in like three slices to start with 50 or 60 grams some restaurants probably use only american cheese that'd be fine but there's enough sodium phosphate in here to emulsify some jack cheese in there as well if you can't get processed cheese slices keep watching i have multiple solutions for you a little knob of butter in there for extra richness that's optional and obviously skip it if you're using cream now i'll just turn the heat on like medium high and be sure to stir this as it melts if you don't stir the emulsion will not form you'll end up with fat floating on top of water lots of so-called copycat recipes for restaurant style queso dip tell you to use starch to stabilize and thicken this stuff usually cornstarch if you did that you would not need those emulsifying salts but the result is really disappointing in my opinion you get a gross powdery texture as opposed to this unnaturally smooth and gooey texture that you only get with modern science i think it needs some more salt to work as a dip and obviously you could stir in any herbs or spices that you want the mexican place that lauren and i go to in georgia stops right here the place my mother-in-law goes to in tennessee flavors the dip with this some kind of canned or pickled green chili any kind works but you can tell that place up in tennessee is only mixing in the juice they must use the solid chili bits for something else you get that chili flavor and a little acidity without disrupting the smooth texture but now you've added some water so you might want to thicken it back up a little bit with more cheese remember it'll thicken a lot as it cools if you overshoot the mark you can just stir in some more liquid and that's done truly milk of the goddess that is a skin will form on the surface as it cools totally normal and it'll dissolve right back in again if you stir it oh like my glasses they're from the sponsor of this video warby parker all my glasses have been from warby parker for years the glasses there start at just 95 bucks they have a huge selection of sexy frames you can filter by type and then they'll send you some to try on at home totally free let's see what lauren thinks oh i like those i like those you have cheese on your lip oh thank you yeah i think that one there is the winner once again i accidentally requested samples of frames i already own i apparently really like them warby parker has brick and mortar stores too where you can get eye exams and they don't just have glasses they do contact lenses sunglasses progressives whatever do warby parker's free home try on program yourself order five pairs of glasses to try on at home for free for five days there's no obligation to buy it ships free and includes a prepaid return shipping label do us both a favor and order your try on with my link in the description that's warbyparker.com regucia thank you warby parker now these recipes i'm giving you in the description make two dishes about this size of queso so it's enough for like two or three people you could obviously multiply for a party now the obvious alternative to making queso dip with processed cheese slices is to order your own emulsifying salts online this is sodium citrate i use it all the time and once you have it this is definitely the easy way i'm just tearing in maybe 200 grams of jack cheese more this time because now we're not using the american cheese about half a teaspoon of sodium citrate two or three grams doesn't have to be precise and then like half a cup of evaporated milk again about a mls be sure to stir as it melts ions from the emulsifying salts replace ions in the casein proteins in the cheese and milk and some more science stuff happens and then boom a silky gooey emulsion starch does not do that taste it might not need any salt because the sodium citrate is salty flavor it however you want then it's done but what if you don't want to order a whole thing of sodium citrate well you can make some at home by combining citric acid from lime juice and sodium bicarbonate baking soda this absolutely does work i'm just juicing like three of these limes i need 40 or 50 mls maybe a third of a cup or a little more it's all a guess because this is a natural product we can't know exactly how much citric acid is in here but i'll stir in like half a teaspoon of sodium bicarb two or three grams and watch science happen at first this reaction creates carbon dioxide and some water stirring helps dissolve everything and it pops the bubbles before this bubbles over on you once it's done foaming it's really cold because science and i think the reactions that get you sodium citrate keep happening over a few minutes after the foaming is over i get better results if i let this keep doing whatever it's doing for like five minutes during which time you might turn on the heat and boil off some of the extra water we've introduced here just don't take it too far if it reduces to the point where it starts to brown it tastes pretty gross now i'll put in like 80 ml of evaporated milk just a little less to account for the moisture already in there and don't worry about the acid curdling the milk the acid doesn't exist anymore it's been neutralized in goes about 200 grams of jack cheese again seven or eight ounces stir and heat until smooth please do not ask me whether we've created trisodium citrate or monosodium citrate i have no idea this is hardly precise chemistry we're doing here i just know that i've done this a bunch of times and it works beautiful gooey emulsion again doesn't need any additional salt we've got sodium from the baking soda and i'll go ahead and stir in the chili chunks with the pickling juice this time and maybe some cilantro you could do diced tomatoes olives all kinds of things go in here now does that have some noticeable lime flavor in it yes it does is that a bad thing i don't think so this is my favorite batch of the three get some tortilla chips and try it yourself

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 707,802

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Id: EKHItk0P_dc

Length: 6min 23sec (383 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021