Snadamo Cheeseburger Project

[snadamo]

I have been hinting at making my own cheeseburger. And when I mean that, I mean making everything from scratch; grind your own meat, homemade buns, homemade cheese, pickles, bacon, etc. So I started this weekend with cheese and buns.

This is American Cheese I made. It is really rich and flavorful compared to store bought. This is right after I poured it in the container to cool and then sit in fridge overnight to solidify. We're planning on making grilled cheese/ham sandwiches for dinner tonight, so I will have more pics probably then.

These bad boys I made earlier today and they're ready to go in the oven. My middle son helped me out a bit, so that was fun. I used 3 eggs (two for dough, 1 for egg wash), so this is a $180 batch...

Aaand done!

Cross section. Taste and texture on point! Looking forward to making the rest.

This is the first time I have ever baked....like ever...and I am really pleased how it turned out. The baker in our household...Mrs Snadamo was impressed so I think I did something right :mrgreen:

Anyway, more to come in the coming days/weeks

 

[Smokie185]

Gonna be following this.

 

[Moose]

 

[Stingerhook]

Welllllll !!!!!!!

 

[cowgirl]

Great job, Adam! Love those buns! :grin:

 

[4ever3]

Talk to me about this homemade American cheese please…

 

[16Adams]

Good Lord,
Amen

 

[LYU370]

NICE! What percentages did you use for the cheese? I've only made it for a cheese sauce for mac n cheese or beer cheese sauce for dipping chips n pretzels. I usually do 85% liquid & 4% sodium citrate, I imagine for slices you'd use less liquid.

 

[SoCalWJS]

Wow! That is a lot of work!

Will be paying close attention to this one.

 

[Grabnabber]

Excellent work! :mrgreen:

 

[snadamo]

Talk to me about this homemade American cheese please…

Sure thing!

Personally, I feel like American cheese is the ultimate melty burger cheese. Effectively it's just butter, Milk (cream, beer, whatever), Actual cheese (I used medium cheddar), and the key ingredient sodium citrate (which emulsifies everything together so it doesn't separate). Shred cheese, mix it all in low heat pot, mix up and pour in to a container to solidify.

Flavor wise, it's all there. I feel it's softer than store bought and way more flavorful/rich. That being said, mental note not to go super thick on slices. The grilled ham/cheese sandwiches we had tonight were delicious!


Link below is where I got the idea. I know YT'ers and/or Chud is not everyone's fave, but I timestamped his cheese part in the video. It's short, sweet, informational, etc. This video, along with a few others, gave me the idea to make everything homemade for my own Bacon Cheeseburgers poject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRZsiXtvQDI&t=350s

 

[ssv3]

I'm definitely liking your projects Adam. This is going to be good. :nod:

 

[snadamo]

NICE! What percentages did you use for the cheese? I've only made it for a cheese sauce for mac n cheese or beer cheese sauce for dipping chips n pretzels. I usually do 85% liquid & 4% sodium citrate, I imagine for slices you'd use less liquid.

I think I roughly used 26% liquid and a something like 2% citriate....My math sucks but I think that's the rounded up version

Here was my basic recipe for this one (small batch):

50g Butter
150g Milk
10g Sodium Citrate
350g Cheese (medium cheddar)


Shred all your cheese first
Melt Butter
Mix in Sodium Citrate til dissolved
add milk, mix a bit
gradually add the shredded cheese and mix until smooth
OPTIONAL: I used immersion blender at end to make sure it's all mixed up

 

[snadamo]

Great job, Adam! Love those buns! :grin:

:biggrin1:

 

[Smoke Dawg]

I'm in!

 

[bowhnter]

Dang, Adam. That’s good all the way around!
Lookin forward to more.

 

[LYU370]

Never thought of putting the cheese sauce in a round container. Round cheese slices for round burgers. Brilliant!!!

 

[lunchman]

Gonna be good. Always fun to (watch someone else) experiment.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

This is going to be good
op2:

 

[PitRow]

Off to a great start! Can't wait to see the rest. Thanks for the cheese recipe, definitely going to try that soon.