The Genius Secret Message Behind The Formula For Nacho Cheese

According to The New York Times, nachos got their start in 1940, and owe their name to their creator. As the newspaper notes, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, who worked as a manager at the Victory Club, a restaurant in the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras, concocted the dish for hungry customers. Soon enough, nachos quickly grew in popularity around the U.S., and Frank Liberto, the owner of Ricos, a Mexican supply company, wanted to create a variation that could be served quickly to customers who didn’t want to wait for real cheese to melt. 

To do so employs the use of sodium citrate, per the HuffPost. It’s a kind of salt that also emulsifies, reducing the acid level in the cheese so as to make the proteins more soluble and ensuring that the mixture doesn’t separate into its various components. In other words, it makes solid cheese into liquid cheese. 

Amazingly and amusingly, the formula of sodium citrate, or the arrangement of the correct number of atoms of different chemicals to create it, hints toward its destiny as a transformative cheese additive. According to Byju’s, sodium citrate consists of three parts sodium (Na), six parts carbon (C), five parts hydrogen (H), and seven parts oxygen (O). Put that all together and it forms the chemical formula Na3C6H5O7. Take out the numbers and it spells… N-A-C-H-O.

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