shredded cheese
See also: cheddar cheese
Cheese that's been grated or shredded into strands so it melts quickly and evenly, sold pre-shredded in bags or done fresh at home with a box grater. Pre-shredded bags are coated with a starch or cellulose anti-caking agent to keep the strands from clumping, which also makes them melt slightly less smoothly than cheese grated fresh off a block.
Buying guidance
For the smoothest melt, grate a block yourself rather than buying pre-shredded -- the anti-caking coating on bagged shredded cheese can leave a sauce slightly grainy. If convenience matters more, pre-shredded is fine; just expect a marginally less silky melt.
Substitutions
- Block cheese, grated at home -- melts more smoothly than pre-shredded; use the same type of cheese called for.
- A different melting cheese of similar moisture level, such as a cheddar and Monterey Jack mix -- changes flavor somewhat but keeps similar melting behavior.
Tips & common mistakes
Adding a large handful of shredded cheese to a hot sauce all at once tends to make it clump into a stringy mass rather than melt smoothly -- add it gradually, a bit at a time, off the highest heat, stirring each addition in before adding more.
Storage
Because it's already cut into thin strands, pre-shredded cheese has far more surface area exposed to air than a block, so it dries out and hardens at the edges considerably faster once the bag is opened -- press out excess air and reseal it tightly, and expect a shorter usable window than an equivalent block would have.