Instead, the cheese will snap as you pull it apart. Hello, I made broccoli & cheddar soup tonight and something that as never happened before occurred. If you are making baked macaroni and cheese, then try grating the cheddar into small slivers and sprinkling them on the top of the macaroni. Melting cheddar cheese is not difficult Cheddar is a fairly hard cheese that will transform into a smooth-flowing cheese used for a variety of purposes when melted. The softer the cheese, the more readily its proteins break down. Because of the varying moisture content in different cheeses you just can't swap parmesan for cheddar in a recipe; it just won't work. The smaller the slivers, the more uniform and easy the melting will be. As these cheeses pass 90 degrees, they soften and exude tiny milkfat globules. The … A young cheddar cheese both melts and stretches, because it's got relatively long protein strands, a medium-pH level, and relatively high levels of fat and moisture. Why the clumpyness and lack of melting? The sharpness of the cheddar is really up to your individual taste. As the cheese gets hotter, the bonds holding together the casein proteins (the principal proteins in cheese) break, and the cheese collapses into a thick fluid. As with all cheeses, a specific process is required to melt cheddar to prevent it from burning, breaking down or becoming hard and stringy, and patience is key. https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-melt-cheese-recipe-article Very dry aged cheeses do not melt well at all because their moisture content is simply too low. The cheese wouldn't melt all the way. The melting cheeses include Cheddar, Swiss, Pecorino Romano, Mozzarella and Parmesan. The best cheeses for soups are high in moisture and have a lower melting point, such as medium to sharp cheddar, fontina, Gruyere and Swiss. No matter how long or hot I cooked the soup the cheese just broke down into stuff that resembled curds. Robert Wolke writing for Fine Cooking suggests the following melting cheeses: cheddar, Asiago, Gruyere, Fontina, Gouda, Monterey Jack, Emmentaler (or Emmental), Havarti and Muenster. Some creamy, mild cheeses also stretch into strings instead of melting which is why you rarely see a mozzarella-based soup. Montgomery gives the example of cheddar cheese. First, at about 90°F, the solid milk fat in the cheese begins to liquefy, the cheese softens, and beads of melted fat rise to the surface. Look for these cheeses sliced in the supermarket dairy case or ask for slices from your local deli or cheese shop. The drier parmesan will melt as individual shavings, but it won't ever become a melted mass like a semi-hard cheddar. Unfortunately, real cheddar cheese does not melt particularly well. I don't get it, cheese has a low melting temperature and the soup was at a boil for some time. Step 2 Slice your own cheese if you cannot find pre-sliced cheese. They do not fully melt until the heat breaks down their protein matrix. First, understand that not all cheese melts equally. But an aged cheese can still melt well.