Author Topic: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce  (Read 6824 times)

Cheese Head

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John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« on: July 12, 2008, 12:54:30 AM »
Wife and kids still in Calgary, 7 friends coming over here to play Texas Hold 'Em Poker, sadly made Kraft Processed Velveeta Cheese spinich & sausage dip based on recipe here, yes you can call me a philistine!

At least it has veggies!

Tea

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2008, 09:40:02 PM »
Downunder in the back woods of no where, we have never heard of velveeta cheese.
Could you please enlighten us poor serfs.   :P

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2008, 11:09:37 PM »
Velveeta is a hugely popular Kraft brand cheap processed cheese like the individual American Cheese slices you put on burgers or in kids sandwiches or Cheez Whiz, except you buy it in a 2 lb/0.9 kg block for USD4.50. It's made from cheddar cheese and a whole binhch of additives, some info here.

Basically it's cheap, tasty, melts easily without separating, and probably really really bad for you. You would never see it in cheese stores, big displays of it in Wal-Mart stores.

Just for you, I dug the box cover out of the garbage, and OK I bought the cheap knock off from huge chain grocery store here called Kroger for USD3.50 not Kraft brand, and it's not the original plain cheddar flavour but a popular fresh white cheese and jalepeno flavor as I'm in Texas which is 1/2 latino.

Worlock

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2009, 02:42:01 PM »

makkonen

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2009, 10:36:22 AM »
So, sure, it's blasphemy... but, you must admit, this stuff is useful. It melts in a creepily perfect way, it's fatty and smooth and pleasant... and really nothing else works quite like it for queso (i.e. chile con queso). I love fondue (and fundido -- huh, I never actually realized before typing it just now that it's the same word), but it's just not the same thing.

Frankly, this bugs me. I shouldn't have to rely on "pasteurized processed cheese food product" that can only be cooked up in a lab... we haven't yet gotten that far away from real food in our culture yet... have we?

So now I'm thinking I'd like to try my hand at making pasteurized processed cheese in my own home. But, y'know, good. The 'What's That Stuff?' link John posted basically says it's cheese (check) + milk solids (powdered milk, check) + anhydrous milkfat (clarified butter, check) + emulsifiers (lecithin, check), heated, blended, and poured into molds. Just gotta figure out the specifics and give it a whirl.

I can do that. Doesn't even sound that complicated.

OK, it probably is way more complicated. And OK, I probably won't actually do it anytime soon. Because I don't have any cheeses that I'd want to adulterate like this. And buying storebought cheese just for this mad scientist experimentation sounds less than sensible. And if I'm going to make something crazy, I'd like to end up with a product that'll compete with obscure, hard to find imports, not something that's available for $3 in every supermarket in the known universe.

...But maybe someday.

MrsKK

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2009, 12:06:22 PM »
Well, John, I have a recipe for you!  Mind you, it is not my own.  This recipe comes courtesy of Farmwoman on the Christian Homesteader forum. 

Just a couple of notes:  Milk will only clabber (thicken naturally) if it is raw milk.  You can't get there with pasturized, homogenized milk.  She uses about 1/2 cup of yogurt to 1 1/2 gallons of milk to get it to clabber.  I have not successfully made this cheese yet, but also must admit that I didn't follow her recipe to the letter, either (used buttermilk instead of yogurt as my culture).

Here is her post, in it's entirety, of Homemade Velveeta:

"I decided to start this board out with my favorite cheese recipe. This is one you can make without a cheese press.I let my milk really clabber well. I used live-culture plain yogurt to culture my fresh warm milk.

1 1/2 gallons clabbered milk
4 TBSP. butter
3/4 teasp. baking soda
2/3 cup soured cream
1 1/2 teasp. salt
1/2 teasp. cheese coloring (if desired)
Heat clabbered milk for 30 minutes at a temperature of 110 - 115 degrees farenheit. Strain and squeeze curd until fairly dry. Place curd in mixing bowl and stir in soft butter and soda until well mixed. Let stand covered for 2 1/2 hours. Put on stove in double boiler, adding soured cream, salt and cheese coloring. Cook until it looks like melted cheese. It will take a little while for the curds to melt into the cream. Stir constantly during this process. Turn into a buttered mold. I use a rectangle plastic container. Chill until set and slice to serve.
Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

The live culture yogurt clabbers the milk. I strain my fresh milk and stir in the yogurt. My oven has a bread proofing setting that I use in cold weather to keep the milk at the right temp. In warm weather just cover the container and let set until the milk clabbers. It usually takes about 12 hours. This is a good Velveeta substitute. I use it to make maccaroni and cheese, with salsa to make a hot dip, and we love it on crackers."

homeacremom

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2009, 06:57:30 PM »
I've made that recipe (homemade Velveeta) and it isn't the same. Unless I just did it wrong - several times.  :-\
 Dh used to think velveeta was the only way to make grilled cheese, mac-n-cheese, and various other humble comfort dishes. (He's been brainwashed and retrained now.  :D says it tastes fake  :o )

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2009, 11:53:19 PM »
Is Velveta really cheese? I thought it was proccessed something or other? LOL

wharris

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2009, 12:13:00 AM »
Ingredients: MILK, WATER, MILKFAT, WHEY, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, ALGINATE, SODIUM CITRATE, APOCAROTENAL (COLOR), ANNATTO (COLOR), ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE.

 
I guess technically,  it IS cheese.  But somehow I don't see this listed in my cheese bible's "family" of cheeses.
 
 
 
 
 

thebelgianpanda

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2009, 12:16:07 AM »
This isn't a recipe for Velveeta specifically, but when I read this at the U of G site on cheesemaking I will say I was intrigued.  http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/cheese/sectionf.htm#processcheese

Here is one of the charts that I shamelessly downloaded:

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: John's Poker Velveeta Natcho Sauce
« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2009, 03:42:06 AM »
Interesting - cheese "food" must contain 51% cheese?

Wayne I don't know that we could purchase some og that stuff even if we wanted to.