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Queso dip #2

Okay, I'm starting to get a handle on this queso dip, chile con queso, spicy melted cheese dip thing. Experiment #1 was a success, and this was kind of a regression, but I learned some new things, and it still tasted good. Queso dip #3 is my favorite so far.

Warning: Experimental recipe, did not quite turn out right!

1/2 oz. hot pepper vodka 1 slice of pickled jalapeno , minced 1 oz. Cabot extra sharp cheddar cheese half of a 1/8 tsp. measure of sodium citrate a little heavy cream

One of the issues I ran into in the past was that the spicy flavor didn't infuse through the cheese; only bits of jalapeƱo were hot. This time I added 1/2 oz. of my homemade hot pepper infused vodka and boiled off the alcohol before lowering the heat to make the cheese dip. This worked really well, and made the whole cheese dip a little spicier. Another thought was to use chipotle or cayenne powder or something like that.

The main difference this time was that I used Cabot extra sharp cheddar instead of the Sargento 4-cheese shredded blend that I used previously. The problem with this is that even with the melting salt (sodium citrate), it looks great, but when you dip a chip into it is suddenly turns kind of grainy. It's weird, and not recommended. Maybe I need more melting salt. Though I'll probably just stick with the cheese blend.

Also, I curiously got less cheese dip than before, even with both using 1.0 oz. cheese. I guess I must have used less cream.

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