Upgrade Your Cheese Sauce with a Little Science
Processed cheese is an incredible product, at least from a food science perspective. It’s engineered and optimized by people much smarter than you and I to melt beautifully, without any of the greasy puddles you get when melting cheddar. There’s a lot to learn from that engineering, even if you aren’t in love with the final product.
A quick perusal of Velveeta’s ingredient list revealed the secret to its super smooth texture: Melting salts, namely sodium citrate. It may sound super synthetic, but it’s nothing more than a simple salt—one you can synthesize in your kitchen with lemon juice and baking soda.
You can read all about the science of sodium citrate here, but a tiny bit is all you need to whip up an impossibly creamy cheese sauce that acts like Velveeta and tastes like an aged sharp cheddar or nutty Gruyère. From there, you can flavor and customize it to fit your specific needs, whether that’s a spicy nacho cheese dip or a smoky beer cheese for dipping pretzels. It also makes a perfect accompaniment for our Eight-Ingredient Beef and Bean Chili, which gets deep, complex flavor from a little bit of cocoa powder, without any detectable chocolate flavor.
Another cheesy dip we can’t stop talking about is our recently published Khachapuri. Georgia’s staple snack comes in many regional forms, but all are versions of savory cheese-filled bread. The most famous version hails from the southwestern area of Ajdara, and is easily recognizable by its boat-like shape. For our version, we make the dough in a food processor, which also makes quick work of mixing the cheeses for the filling. Rather than top the bread with a whole egg—which can lead to undercooked, goopy whites— we add only a yolk, along with a pat of butter. You won’t find either in a block of Velveeta, but both egg yolk and butter are known for their emulsion-stabilizing abilities, which helps keep the cheese smooth and creamy. It’s dip and dipper all in one—just tear off the edges of the bread and swirl them around in the rich filling.
Your Nachos and Tacos Deserve Better Beans
“I see absolutely no need to ever make any other refried bean recipe, ever again,” one reader wrote of our Refried Beans. We start with a simple can of beans—either pinto or black—then puree and cook them down with a mixture of onions, garlic, chilis in adobo, and a trio of seasonings. In terms of cooking fat, we highly recommend lard, which adds a richness you just don’t get with vegetable oil. (These Oaxacan-Style Refried Black Beans are similarly rich, and get their complex flavor and heat from a blend of bay leaf, aniseed, and guajillo chilies.)
Our other favorite bean to pile on chips or stuff into tortillas are Borracho Beans, or “drunken beans,” beans cooked with flavorful alcohol, along with some sort of cured pork. We make ours with tequila, bacon and chipotle chilies, for a spicy, deeply savory flavor. No need to splurge on the tequila here—save the top-shelf stuff for Chili-Pineapple Margaritas.
If you want to break out of the nacho format, these pantry-friendly Bean and Cheese Tostadas come together in about 30 minutes. Set out a toppings bar with a wide array of garnishes—think serrano-studded guacamole, crema, tomatoes, and lime wedges—and let everyone customize their tostada to their liking. (For extra credit: Make the tortillas yourself.) Or throw together a batch of these Toasted Tacos with Adobo Beans and Cheese, based on the smoky grilled tacos we had in Nayarit on the west coast of Mexico.
Look Beyond Buffalo When Saucing Your Wings
Our Oven-Fried Sweet Chili Wings are sticky-sweet, lacquered with a garlicky, tangy chili sauce, and get a textural boost from a common pantry staple. Lightly coating the wings with oil, then tossing them with cornstarch before cooking helps produce crispness without greasiness—you can even make them in the air fryer.
Our riff on buffalo wings is inspired by a wide range of international flavors. We season the wings with za’atar, an herby, seedy Middle Eastern spice blend, then dredge them in flour and bake until golden. For the sauce, we ditch the standard cayenne (sorry Frank) and make ours with North African harissa paste, a fiery, fragrant mixture of red chilies and spices. (Don’t worry though, we still use plenty of butter.)
We’re also big fans of skewers, which are easy to hold and eat (and don’t leave a pile of bones in their wake). Some of our favorites:
- Thai Grilled Pork Skewers: This meat-on-a-stick is based on the moo ping sold by street vendors who cook the skewers over hardwood charcoal on grills set out on crowded sidewalks. We use pork shoulder for its high fat content, which is essential for flavor and juiciness, and season with a savory-sweet mixture of brown sugar, fish sauce, and soy sauce.
- Moroccan Ginger-Lemon Chicken Skewers: Grilled lemon halves, drizzled with honey and squeezed over the charred chicken skewers, added a final note of sweet-tart acidity that helped balance bold, savory seasonings. Finish with fresh cilantro, parsley or mint for an extra layer of fresh flavor and pop of color.
- Singapore Chicken Satay: Satay is usually cooked over beds of hot charcoal, but we’ve adapted the method for easy inside cooking. We brine thin strips of chicken in a mixture of ginger, garlic, sugar, turmeric, cumin, then broil them on a wire rack set over a bed of salt. The salt absorbs the fat as it drips into the pan, so you get plenty of delicious charred bits without any of the smoke.
Pour Your Pizza Dough for a Better Crust
For years, Chris Kimball struggled to make a decent pizza dough. Then Milk Street Editorial Director J.M. Hirsch brought back an outstanding crispy-airy-chewy focaccia recipe from Panificio Fiore in Bari, Italy, and Pour-in-the-Pan Pizza was born. There’s no kneading or tossing; the batter-like dough is poured onto a baking sheet, then topped simply with hand-mashed tomatoes, mozzarella, and oregano. The focaccia-like dough stands up to the juicy tomatoes, baking up super crispy with a thick, chewy inside. “Delicious and foolproof,” wrote one reader.
Our Basic Pizza Dough is a little more traditional, with a nicely crisped surface and satisfying chew. You can keep it simple with a fresh tomato sauce and blend of three cheeses (mozzarella, fontina, and Parmesan, to be exact), or top it off with crispy roasted mushrooms, za’atar-spiced eggplant and feta, or a sweet and salty combination of figs, blue cheese, and prosciutto. We’ve also got an incredible White Pie—we make the sauce with a mixture of whipped cream and fontina, which melts down into an ultra-creamy sauce when baked.
Serve it all with the aforementioned margaritas, or mix it up with a Tequila at High Noon—our take on the Tequila Sunrise, in which we sub in mildly bittersweet Italian spirit Aperol for the typical (and often too sweet) grenadine for a more balanced beverage.
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