I Was Thinking About…The Genius Secret Message Behind The Formula For Nacho Cheese
By Andy Lee
Nacho cheese is a uniquely American culinary creation. Known for its smooth, tangy, spicy flavor and creamy neon orange color, this cheese sauce graces snack stands at stadiums, movie theaters, and convenience stores across the country. But the origins of its mass-produced pumped formula have an amusing backstory containing a “secret message” in the chemistry behind it.
First, it helps to clarify exactly what we mean by nacho cheese. Not the melted blend of cheddar or Oaxaca cheese you’d find topping a plate of fresh tortilla chips at your local Mexican restaurant. No, the nacho cheese of legend is the hyper-processed liquid gold that comes squirting out of a pump or served up by the ladle-full to smother tortilla chips and nachos.
This style of smooth, shelf-stable cheese sauce traces its roots to a Texan named Frank Liberto. In the 1970s, Liberto wanted to create an instant cheesy topping for the mass-market tortilla chip company he had launched. He knew convenience was key, so he set his team of food scientists to develop an emulsion that combined real cheese with chemical emulsifiers and preservatives while eliminating any risk of separation.
The key ingredient that made their pumped nacho cheese formula work? Sodium citrate. This salt reduces the acidity of cheese, making the proteins dissolve together smoothly so the mixture never curdles or splits. And remarkably, when you write out the molecular formula for sodium citrate – Na3C6H5O7 – it cheekily spells out an abbreviated form of its destiny: N-A-C-H-O.
The origin story of nachos themselves dates back to 1943 in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras. A restaurant manager named Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya threw together a quick appetizer for American military wives using fried tortilla chips topped with melted cheese and sliced jalapeños. The dish was a huge hit, with the wives asking for more of Ignacio’s “special nachos.” His nickname for the snack stuck.
By the 1970s, Frank Liberto wanted to take mass-produced nachos nationwide with his tortilla chip company. But keeping real shredded cheese smoothly liquid on an industrial scale for pumping, packaging, shipping and shelf stability proved difficult…until sodium citrate solved the emulsion issues. And so, with the help of the atomic configuration for Na3C6H5O7 cheekily spelling out “NACHO”, the perfect smooth, spicy orange cheese sauce was born!
These days, stadiums, movie theaters, and quick-service Tex Mex joints coast to coast rely on pumped vats of creamy nacho cheese topping, just as Frank Liberto envisioned thanks to clever food chemistry. Home cooks too can whip up smooth cheesy dips using that same magical ingredient – sodium citrate – which is naturally present in small amounts in various cheeses.
So next time you grab a tray of piping hot tortilla chips doused in pump-ready liquid gold, take a moment to appreciate the genius humor contained within the atomic structure of the magical ingredient that makes craveworthy nacho cheese possible. Who knew the formula Na3C6H5O7 could have a hidden message spelling the destiny of this popular snack? Not me…until now!
As we’ve learned, the story of nacho cheese has its roots in a delicious accident when Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya threw together tortilla chips and melted cheese for customers in Mexico. Decades later, Frank Liberto tapped into cravings for convenient, smooth, spicy cheese sauce with a mass-produced formula using a versatile salt called sodium citrate. And remarkably, the molecular configuration of this magical emulsifying ingredient cheekily spells out an abbreviation for the very snack it helped popularize globally: Nacho!
It just goes to show how an unexpected molecular message can lead to revolutionary snacks someday down the road. Makes you wonder – what other atomic elements or chemical formulas contain clues to their greater purpose that we just haven’t uncovered yet? The mysteries of science never cease to surprise!
Chips up to crafty chemistry! 🥳🌡️💧
I was thinking about... 