TCHNIQUS / VIDOS

The Food La: For the et roccoli Cheee Soup, Divide
and Conquer
J. KNJI LÓPZ-ALT

In the world of cheat food, roccoli cheee oup Cream, filling, and packed with laered roccoli
ha alwa eemed like one of the cheatiet. Ye, flavor. [Photograph and video: J. Kenji López-
"roccoli" i the firt word in the name, and "oup" Alt]
ure ound health, ut let' get real: When ou
go up to the counter and tell the order-taker, "I'd like a owl of roccoli cheee oup, pleae,"
what ou're reall aing i "Thank ou for making it ea and acceptale to drink a owl of
nacho cheee auce for lunch."

There' nothing wrong with owning it. Cheee i deliciou, and not ever ingle lunch ha to
e virtuou. Still, I ometime wih that the roccoli part of the whole thing wa taken a little
more erioul, if onl for the purel elfih reaon that I love roccoli.

M goal here wa to create a recipe for roccoli cheee oup that wa a comforting a the
ultra-chee kind ou tpicall find, ut imultaneoul reall tated like roccoli.

UILDING IN TH ROCCOLI

For m firt tet, I ued a ver common technique: Sauté onion and carrot in utter until
oftened ut not rowned, ince rowned onion and carrot ecome ditractingl weet.
Add ome chicken tock to the pot—water alo work fine, though chicken tock lend more
flavor—along with ome dair. (I teted heav cream, regular milk, and kim milk and found
that traight-up whole milk wa et; it provided creamine without an overwhelming
amount of extra dair fat, which can dull flavor.) Thicken with tarch. Simmer. lend in
cheee. Add roccoli and cook jut until tender.

With thi approach, I wound up with a oup that tated like what it wa: cheee oup, with
it of roccoli floating in it.

Next, I went the oppoite route, teting a few recipe that called for immering the roccoli
for a long, long time (thee tended to e low-cooker recipe). Thee oup ended up tating
ver much like the chafing-dih verion ou're proal familiar with if ou ever eat lunch at
Panera: roccoli flavor uilt right into the oup, ut no rightne or frehne to peak of.

Thi wan't urpriing. Anod who ha made m pata with raied roccoli
(http://www.erioueat.com/recipe/2012/01/pata-with-raied-roccoli-and-tomato-recipe.html), or the
raied roccoli rae recipe from m ook (http://www.amazon.com/Food-La-Cooking-Through-
Science/dp/0393081087/?tag=erieat-20), know that the flavor of roccoli will change dramaticall
aed on how long it' cooked. Cook it for a hort period of time, and it ta gra and
right. Cook it for a ver long period, and it turn rich and avor.*

* Interetingl, a recent recipe from America' Tet Kitchen for cauliflower oup
(http://www.americatetkitchen.com/recipe/7491-cauliflower-oup) found that the ame hold true for cauliflower. I'm

gueing it' a common trait in all raica.

ach tle ha it appeal, ut what I reall wanted wa oth: deep roccoli flavor worked into
the oup, along with piece of right, freh, gra roccoli. So how do we get the et of
oth world? Simple: Jut add the roccoli in two different tage.

I tarted  eparating head of roccoli into tem and floret, cutting the floret into ite-
ize piece. Next, I chopped up the tem and autéed them in utter, along with onion and a
carrot. (I alo tried leek and celer, ut found them unnecear.) I added ome liced garlic
to the lend a well, autéing it jut until aromatic.

After adding m tock and dair and giving the oup ae a good long immer to full
tenderize the roccoli tem, I puréed the whole thing uing an immerion lender
(http://www.erioueat.com/2015/12/equipment-the-et-hand-lender-review.html), adding grated
cheddar cheee to the pot a I lended. The texture of the oup wan't exactl where I
wanted it to e (a little grain), ut I figured I could focu more on that after I'd worked out the
roccoli flavor iue.

The reulting oup wa deliciou, with nicel laered roccoli flavor, ut it could have een
even etter. I'd alread enhanced the flavor of the vegetale  plaing with the variale of
time—what if I were to alo pla with the variale of heat? Jut like ruel prout
(http://www.erioueat.com/recipe/2013/12/ea-roated-ruel-prout-food-la-recipe.html), roccoli
get an intenel weet, nutt flavor when ujected to ver high heat. There had to e a
good wa to take advantage of that.
How could I incorporate that flavor into the oup? M firt thought wa to roat the roccoli
tem, a Daniel doe for hi roated-roccoli oup
(http://www.erioueat.com/recipe/2014/10/roated-roccoli-oup-uttermilk-pepita-recipe.html), ut
roating and then immering eemed a little fu for a ingle recipe. Intead, I decided to do
it all on the tovetop  earing the roccoli floret in a it of oil right at the tart, then
tranferring them to a aking heet to cool while I contructed the ret of the oup ae.
Doing thi allowed me to add thoe rowned floret ack to the oup efore erving, puling
them with the immerion lender jut enough to reak them apart and pread ome of that
weet, nutt flavor around. The reulting oup had great, multilaered roccoli flavor. Now it
wa time to turn m attention to the other important element: the cheee.

CHASING MAXIMUM CHSINSS

I went with a comination of grated harp cheddar and chunk of American cheee that I got
from the deli cae. (Check out thi article on American cheee
(http://www.erioueat.com/2016/07/what-reall-in-american-cheee.html) for more detail aout the
difference etween the deli and the preliced tuff.) Thi como provide a nice mix of harp,
"flavorful" cheee and the more comforting, dair-forward character of mild American.
(There' nothing topping ou from uing all cheddar, all American, or an other oung, moit
cheee, of coure.)

It' ea to think "Jut add more cheee!" if ou want a cheee oup to e cheeier, ut
anone who' ever tried dumping grated cheee into a pot of immering liquid know that it
doen't quite work like thi. Your cheee end up clumping in a olid ma, with a lick of fat
reaking out and floating on the urface. Wh doe thi happen?

Let' take a quick look at what cheee i made of:

• Water i preent to varing degree. Young cheee, like Jack, oung cheddar, or
mozzarella, have a relativel high water content—up to 80%. The longer a cheee i
aged, the more moiture it loe, and the harder it ecome. Hard cheee, like
Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano, ma e a little a 30% water after everal
ear of aging.

• Milk fat, in the form of microcopic gloule kept upended in a tight matrix of protein
micelle (more on thoe in a econd). Under aout 90°F, thi fat i olid. ecaue of thi,
 and ecaue of their upenion, the gloule don't come into contact with each other
to form larger gloule, o cheee ta cream or cruml intead of grea.

• Protein micelle are pherical undle of milk protein. Individual milk protein (the
main one are four imilar molecule called caein) reemle little tadpole (or perm,
if ou will), with hdrophoic (water-avoiding) head and hdrophilic (water-eeking)
tail. Thee protein come together headfirt in undle of everal thouand,
protecting their hdrophoic head and expoing their hdrophilic tail. Thee micelle
link together into long chain, forming a matrix that give the cheee tructure.

• Salt and other flavoring make up the ret of the cheee. Salt can have a profound
effect on the texture of the cheee—altier cheee have had more moiture drawn out
of the curd efore eing preed, o the tend to e drier and firmer. Other flavorful
compound preent in cheee are motl intentional -product of acteria and aging.

Normall, thee four plaer work together in relative harmon. ut heat mee the whole
thing up. Here' what Harold McGee ha to a in On Food and Cooking
(http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/?tag=erieat-20) :

Firt, at around 90°F, the milk fat melt, which make the cheee more upple, and often ring
little ead of melted fat to the urface. Then at higher temperature—around...150°F/65°C
for Cheddar...enough of the ond holding the caein protein together are roken that the
protein matrix collape.

The ke to making a cheee oup that ta cream and emulified i to find a wa to enure
that the fat gloule don't and together and that the protein don't tighten up too much.
Fortunatel, after developing m recipe for cheee auce
(http://www.erioueat.com/recipe/2010/09/cheee-auce-for-cheee-frie-and-nacho.html) and Ultra-
Gooe Stovetop Mac and Cheee (http://www.erioueat.com/2015/10/the-food-la-fifteen-minute-
tovetop-macaroni-and-cheee-recipe-food-la-ook-excerpt.html), I have a it of experience in thi
field.
The common olution i to ue a flour-aed roux. Flour can thicken up the water phae of
the oup, which in turn make it difficult for fat gloule to coalece. Jut like in a cream
Morna auce (http://www.erioueat.com/2014/08/urger-topping-week-morna-muhroom-urger.html),
the cheee can't eparate. ut tarch-thickened auce tend to have a particular texture
that I find off-putting. Rather than glo and mooth, like melted cheee, the end up more
pat and dull. I wanted to avoid uing a flour-aed roux in m oup.

Firt, I tried utituting evaporated milk for the whole milk I wa uing in the recipe.
vaporated milk ha a higher concentration of looe milk protein, which can help to keep the
mixture emulified. The downide i that evaporated milk tate like cooked milk. Thi flavor
in't o ditracting in a cheee auce or mac and cheee, oth of which have a ver high
percentage of cheee, ut it didn't work for the oup.

Next, I turned to other thickener and emulifier: corntarch, odium citrate, and...a potato.
(One of thee thing i not like the other. Conider thi forehadowing.)
Corntarch work much etter than flour, epeciall if ou add it  toing the grated
cheee with it, which allow ou to incorporate it moothl, with no chance of clumping. ut
it' till got the prolem of eing lightl, well, tarch.

Sodium citrate (http://www.amazon.com/Food-Grade-Non-GMO-Sodium-Citrate/dp/00D393SVS/?

tag=erieat-20) work incredil well in thi context. It' a alt that work on a chemical level to
maintain a tale emulion etween fat and water. A little pinch of it in cheee oup or cheee
auce can make almot an cheee melt with the texture of Velveeta. However, at leat until
it ecome a more common pantr taple, I wanted to find a olution uing ingredient
availale at an upermarket.
That led me to the humle potato. If ou've ever made the mitake of tring to make mahed
potatoe in a food proceor or lender, ou know that lending potatoe can turn them
incredil tick and tarch, almot like ule gum. For mahed potatoe, thi i ad. ut,
when it' deploed in a controlled manner, thi effect can e a powerful tool in our kitchen
arenal. It' the ame technique I ue to give m dair-free Vegan Nacho Sauce
(http://www.erioueat.com/recipe/2014/02/gooe-vegan-nacho-cheee-auce-recipe-food-la.html) a
gooe, cheee-like texture, and it proved to work jut a well in thi oup.
 adding a few ounce of potato to the oup ae along with the tock and immering it
along with the roccoli, I wa ale to thicken up the roth enough that the cheee taed
perfectl cream and emulified when I lended it in at the end. A a final flavor oot, I alo
added jut a teapoon of dried mutard (toed with the cheee) and a dah of hot auce.

I lended it all together, then tirred in m charred roccoli floret.

It wa everthing I've ever wanted in a roccoli cheee oup: intenel chee, ut with a
trong roccoli ackone. Which, come to think of it, i exactl the wa I'd decrie Crucifer-
Man, the wiecracking, half-man/half-raica uperhero who fight ecoterrorit  flinging
extra-crip aked kale chip.

Unlike thi oup, he' not ver effective.