Cheese is a tasty addition to any recipe. It's in soups, casseroles, desserts, and, of course, sandwiches, which are loved for their gooey, cheesy interiors. The way the cheese stretches in your is known as its pull.
Cheese pull competitions are entire contests dedicated to stretching the limits. During these competitions, chefs battle to see who can make the stretchiest cheese. One such competition takes place at a festival in a small village called Aubrac, located in South Central France, known as the Fete' De Laguiole.
A construction hoist is required to raise the stretched cheese next to a giant ruler to measure how far it stretches. The chef whose cheese stretches the highest without breaking takes home the prize. This competition is just one of many cheese and dairy-themed events at the two-day long festival, including a live cow milking and local crafters market.
Festivals like the one in Aubrac take cheese pulling to the extreme, but the science behind the ideal cheese pull is a simple chemical compound called sodium citrate. Make Your Cheese Much Stretchier Sodium citrate is the sodium salt of citric acid. It is used as a flavoring and anticoagulant and is the ingredient that makes cheese so easy to melt.
Food-grade sodium citrate powder is sold in stores as a flavor enhancer and a natural food preservative. It can be added to cheeses that don't melt well to increase their pull. Different types of cheese already have a natural pull to them depending on the type of an.
