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The Unexpected Ingredients That Make Cheese Sauce Super Velvety By Allison Beussink Oct. 13, 2025 11:20 am EST

I used to be intimidated by homemade cheese sauce. Most recipes I've tried call for a roux — a thick mixture of flour, butter, and seasonings — and then slowly add milk and small handfuls of shredded cheese to create a luscious sauce perfect for drizzling over nachos, pretzels, or pasta. Unfortunately, this method has left me with lumpy, goopy cheese mixtures that don't resemble sauces.

There's a simpler way to achieve a silky-smooth cheese sauce with ingredients you have at home. The key is to create a melting salt — like sodium citrate — commonly found in cheese products like Velveeta. Melting salts break down the cheese's acidity and proteins so they

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