"Sqwertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Wed, 1 May 2013 12:34:24 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 1 May 2013 09:11:08 -0700, Pico Rico wrote:
>>
>>> "Sqwertz" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:55:39 -0600, Janet Bostwick wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> You spoke of this some years ago and I didn't have the courage to use
>>>>> all Velveeta. I used a small portion of Velveeta with my regular
>>>>> cheeses and was pleasantly surprised. The Velveeta held the sauce
>>>>> together smoothly without any graininess and was still 'saucy' the
>>>>> next day for re-heating. The way that I did it, there was no real
>>>>> flavor or mouth feel of the processed cheese.
>>>>
>>>> That's what I do. Just a portion of Velveeta keeps the other cheeses
>>>> from separating.
>>>
>>> Wouldn't using cream instead of milk do the same thing, and avoid the
>>> Velveeta crapola?
>>
>> Nope. The secret is the sodium citrate in the processed cheese.
>> That's what keeps it from separating and makes it smooth and creamy.
>
> More precisely, the use of emulsifying salts such as disodium
> phosphate and trisodium citrate in process cheese manufacture aids in
> improving the emulsification proper-ties of caseins by displacing the
> calcium phosphate complexes in the insoluble calcium-paracaseinate
> phosphate network present in natural cheese. This displacement of the
> calcium phosphate complex disrupts the major molecular force that
> cross-links the various monomers of casein in the network. This
> disruption of the calcium phosphate complex in conjunction with
> heating and mixing leads to hydration and partial dispersion of the
> calcium-paracaseinate phosphate network. In addition to being
> hydrated, the partially dispersed calcium-paracaseinate complex
> interacts with fat via hydrophobic interactions. After manufacture and
> during the cooling stage, the partially dispersed caseinate matrix
> forms "flocs"and the flocs subsequently interact to form a uni-form,
> closely knit gel network. This phenomenon gives rise to fat emulsified
> by a uniform closely knit protein gel network. Therefore, process
> cheese structure essentially consists of a fat phase evenly dispersed
> (in the form of fat globules, approximately <1 to about 5µm in
> diameter) in a partially dispersed casein gel network.
>
> At least that's been my experience.
>
> <snork>
>
> -sw

Thanks for whipping that up off the top of your head. Much appreciated.