How to Make Processed Cheese at Home

Making processed cheese at home gives you the opportunity to make a cheese spread using only natural ingredients. Once melted, you can use it as a cheese sauce or spread for many foods, and it is easy to store for a prolonged period of time. If you use an orange cheddar your kids will barely notice the difference and you know exactly what you’re feeding them.
If you have extra cheese, or if you bought a large volume of cheese on sale, this is a good way to preserve it.
If you are on a high protein diet, adding extra protein to your cheese spread can make it an appropriate food for athletes.

To learn more about Processed Cheese check out our blog all about the contents, nutrition, and process in What is Processed Cheese.

Check out our post on How to Make Cheese at Home to learn the art of making cheese. It’s a fun project for everyone.
For easy homemade cheese recipes check out our Cheese Making Recipes page.

If you are interested in the world of cheese making, visit our cheese Resource page and our How Cheese is Made post.

We review and suggest Cheese Making Kits here if you would like to get started with making cheese.

Enjoy!!!

How to make processed cheese at home

The biggest challenge in making processed cheese at home is to replace the industrial emulsifiers, like sodium phosphate, with natural emulsifiers that are easy to access.

Here are a few foods that act as emulsifiers:

Egg yolk separated from the white:
Egg yolk contains Lecithin which is a molecule that is water soluble on one end, and fat soluble on the other. Further, there are proteins in egg yolk that contain water attracting amino acids and water repelling amino acids.
Mustard:
When you add mustard to a vinaigrette, it will not separate. The reason being is that the mustard seed hull is surrounded by proteins that are highly effective emulsifiers.
Tomato paste:
Tomato paste has protein molecules that surround the droplets and keep them from joining together.

Ingredients for the regular processed cheese spread

2 cups (225 g/ 8 oz) of shredded orange cheddar (mild, medium, or old. Your preference)
1 cup of full fat or 2% evaporated milk
1 separated egg yolk
1/2 tsp of mustard powder or 1 tsp of mustard
1/2 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp tomato paste
Optional: ½ tsp of hot pepper sauce (or to taste)

Ingredients for a low fat, high protein version

2 cups (225 g/ 8 oz) of shredded orange cheddar (mild, medium, or old. Your preference)
1 1/2 cups of fat free evaporated milk
¼ cup whey protein concentrate
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp of mustard powder or 1 tsp of mustard
1/2 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp tomato paste
Optional: ½ tsp of hot pepper sauce (or to taste)

Tools Needed:

1 med – large pot
Whisk
Cheese Shredder

Procedure for both versions:

Add the condensed milk into a pot
Add egg yolk, tomato paste, mustard, salt, and paprika, and whisk well into the milk
For the athlete recipe: add the protein and whisk well into the milk
Add the shredded cheese
Heat on medium heat until the mixture is 75 C/ 167 F
If you like add some hot sauce

Melting cheese and ingredients

Melted cheese ingredients

You can now use the melted cheese over nachos, fries or the like.
You can pour it into a bowl and serve as a cheese dip with veggies, pizza or crackers.
You can pour it hot into a glass jar. Close the lid while it’s still hot and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. Unopened it will last for 12 months.