Amber and Samiyah's Bodacious Buffalo Chicken Dip

Introduction

Have you ever tasted something that was spicy and makes you think “ sheesh I shouldn't eat that again” but can't seem to stop yourself from going back in with a tortilla chip. Buffalo Chicken Dip is one of those dishes that you have to go back for more. For our project we decided to go into depth into this delicious dish and see if the type of cheese changed the dish.

The Science of Cheese

Cheese is a mixture of dairy, fat, and water held together by casein proteins, the main proteins is cheese. At 90 degrees the fat reaches a liquid state and the cheese becomes more pliable. Adding 40-90 degrees causes the bonds holding the casein proteins to break , allowing the cheese to melt. Different cheeses have different melting temperatures because of factors like moisture content and acidity.

In moist cheese, the proteins are loosely packed with lots of water interspersed between them, so they liquefy easily, but hard cheeses contain so little water that they don’t melt easily. Another factor is acidity, cheeses that are high in acid become stringy when they melt, while cheeses that are curdled with acid instead of rennet, in the cheese making process, do not melt at all. When acid-curdled cheeses are heated, the protein bonds tighten, forcing out any water. As the water evaporates, there isn’t enough moisture left in the cheese to allow it to liquefy. Instead, the protein in the cheese solidifies further.

Experiments and Results

In our experiment we tested how different kinds of cheese would affect our dip’s consistency. Our independent variable was the type of cheese, while the rest of the ingredients, cooking time, and temperature stayed the same.

Recipe and Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Get 3 aluminum pans or anything to mix ingredients
3. Add 2 cans of chicken
4. 8 oz. of Blue Cheese
5. 1 pack of cream cheese (soften)
6. 1 bag of cheddar cheese
7. 8 oz. of hot sauce
8. Put in oven
9. Cook for 45 mins
10. Repeat the previous steps for trials 2 and 3, just change the type of cheese to mozzarella for trial 2 and parmesan for trial 3.

Trial One	Trial Two	Trial Three
Cheddar Cheese melted Good consistency Tastes good Ingredients evenly mixed together	Mozzarella Cheese melted Very loose, almost like water Tastes weird Ingredients not brought together	Parmesan Cheeses barely melted Cheese sits on top of dip Very nasty Ingredients not brought together

Cheddar cheese dip              Parmesan dip on the left and Mozzarella on the right

To summarize our findings, the main scientific difference between the three dips were the consistency of them. The mozzarella had a very high water content and a very low fat content. This means that it was a soft cheese and was made up of mostly water, so it melted very easily. The only downside to this is that it melted a little too easily, so the dish turned out to be very watery and not the thick consistency that buffalo chicken dip usually is. On the other hand the parmesan cheese did not melt at all. That is because it is what is known as a hard cheese, which means that it does not melt easily because of its low moisture content and high fat content. Now cheddar is the best of both worlds. It is a semi-soft cheese, meaning that it has just the right amount of moisture and fat content, which makes it the best cheese for melting. The dish with the cheddar cheese turned out perfect and tasted amazing. Since the three types of cheese that were used were not curdled with acid and had fairly the same pH level, acidity did not play a big role in determining how these cheeses melted. These trails proved that the different types of cheeses change the dish of buffalo chicken dip, because each cheese has different chemistry.