Janet to Leslie - (cheese)

Leslie's comment:

So, this env. prodded me to buying some of those stamps, as I LOVE how it goes with the the bright green paper (how there is a hint of the same color in the stamp). Love it.

Jean's comment:

This reminds me of the Mike Gold envelope that is covered with flourishing that may have run or might be coming up. The stamp placement was fortuitous - because the wavy lines look nice flying off to the right.

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 This add-on has nothing to do with envelopes. It does, however, settle a debate. There are foodies who claim that certain cheesy dishes must have a bit of Velveeta to turn out right. Others will recoil in horror at the mention of Velveeta. Velveeta does not offend me - but I understand why some people do not want to consider it food. I get it. But, I have never found a way to make good nachos without some Velveeta. 

The NYTimes food writer, Eric Kim had this to say in his column on Nov 4th. He's talking about the problem of cheese sauces that turn grainy, especially if they are put in the oven. I like the punchline. If anyone has a secret for making good nachos without Velveeta, I'd love to hear about it. Actually, I need to talk to my food-truck-son. His mac and cheese is superb. Although he says he  feels guilty about how much cream is involved. 

But there is one method that works. Paul Adams, the senior science research editor at Cook’s Illustrated, has written about the stabilizing powers of sodium citrate, an ingredient found in processed cheeses like Velveeta. “It’s fun to see it in action,” he said, “because it opens up a whole world of otherwise ineligible cheeses that you can melt smoothly into a sauce.” Though you could go out and buy sodium citrate, using a smidgen of Velveeta in your sauce does wonders for keeping it indelibly smooth and bound, like movie-theater nacho cheese.

In fact, as Mr. Adams points out, the chemical formula for sodium citrate even spells out “nacho”: Na₃C₆H₅O₇.