The Perfect Cheesiest
Quesadilla
By: Caity Mulcahy and Courtney Beeman
Serves 1 person per quesadilla
History:
Quesadillas originated in central Mexico and
the southwest United States. The type of
quesadillas that are found in the U.S. are more
like sincronizadas in Mexico than their
traditional quesadillas, which are pretty similar
but differ in cooking style. According to
Wikipedia, Production of cheese predates
recorded history. It originated through the
transportation of milk in bladders made of
ruminants' stomachs due to their inherent
supply of rennet. No one really knows where
the production of cheese originate but people
think that in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle
East. In ancient Rome, foreign cheese were
transported to please the richer population.
There are many types of cheese in the world
and the most expensive is Pule which is $576
per pound. It is a really rare cheese made in
Serbia from donkey milk. Quesadillas have
been around for awhile but have become a
staple in Mexican restaurants in the U.S.
Chemistry Behind It:
In cheese making the most important
component in milk is casein, a type of protein
including tiny molecules called micelles that
clump together. These micelles hold up to of
the calcium in milk. Calcium is the key to finding
the perfect, melty cheese for quesadillas.
Changing the properties of these proteins
causes the casein to clump and leave behind a
milky waste called whey. You can use rennet
(an enzyme found in the stomach of lambs and
calves) and acid along with heat to cause the
clumping. When the milk is heated and treated
with acid, the caseins squeeze out the fats and
liquids and forms a curd that is creamy but not
elastic= NOT GOOD FOR QUESADILLAS. But
when the milk is heated and treated with rennet
it traps the fats and liquids into a gel-like
network= GOOD FOR QUESADILLAS. Bacteria
and enzymes are added to milk to cause it to
turn to a solid/semi-solid state. The bacteria
causes the pH to lower by transforming lactose
into lactic acid. The longer the cheese sits after
being pressed the more lactose is being
transformed into lactic acid causing a lower pH.
The lower the pH, the sharper the cheese.The
lower pH allows the calcium to break the bonds
in the micelles allowing the caseins to break
away and link with the fats and liquids in the
cheese causing it to flow. But if the pH is too
low the cheese releases all of its oils when
heated and leaves the cheese clumpy and
greasy. If the cheese has to high of a pH it will
easily break apart. Cheeses like gouda and
manchego have the perfect pH range(5.3-5.5).
But most people use cheddar or a three cheese
mix. But when deciding between sharp or mild,
choose mild. Mild cheese has the texture that
you want versus the less gooey and melty
sharp cheddar cheese.
Ingredients and Equipment:
- 12 Flour Tortillas
- 276 grams Cheddar Cheese
- Blowtorch
- Stove top and Pan
- Microwave
- Skillet

Processes:

Stove top:
- Place pan on stove top, dont put any butter or oil
in the pan
- Set to medium heat
- Place tortilla on pan Fun Fact:
- Place 23 grams of cheese on one half, then fold I know this might sound cheesy. But there are
tortilla in half to cover all the cheese
more than 2000 varieties of cheese available
- Heat for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown,
then flip worldwide, mozzarella is the favorite around the
- Heat for about another two minutes or until globe, and the most consumed. But dont use
golden brown this in your quesadilla, as stated above gouda
- Take off stove and place onto plate, let cool for a is the best cheese to use!
little while
- Enjoy!

Microwave:
- Place tortilla on plate
- Place 23 grams of cheese on half of the tortilla
- Fold tortilla in half to cover all the cheese
- Place plate in microwave and cook for 30
seconds
- Enjoy!

Blowtorch:
- Take out heat safe surface and place tortilla on it
- Put 23 grams of cheese on half of the tortilla
- Put blowtorch on low to medium heat
- Heat tortilla to your satisfaction
- Enjoy!

Skillet:
- Put heat to 400 degrees fahrenheit
- Place tortilla with 23 grams of cheddar cheese on
half into the pan
- Fold tortilla in half to cover cheese
- Cook for 3 minutes, flip, cook for another 3
minutes, let cool
- Enjoy!
Results: took dead last and the pan once again took the
For this experiment my group decided to test win.
different ways to cook a quesadilla in order to
create the best tasting one, with the cheese Graph 2: Texture Test
melted perfectly and the perfect golden brown
tortilla, we had hypothesized the pan would
create this perfect dish. As the experiment went
on we both realized we personally enjoyed the
blowtorch method more than the pan, even
though this was not the case for the average
person in our class.

Our first test we measured the cheese melt with

each method of cooking. In graph 1 you can
see the results of this cheese melt test, we
concluded from the test that the best way to
cook a quesadilla for the most melted cheese is
to cook it with a pan on the stove top.
Graph 1: Cheese Test
The next test was on appearance, it's important
that your food looks appealing as well as tastes
good. In Graph 3 you can see that the pan had
the highest score. For this test me and my
group members disagree, we liked the
blowtorch appearance better than the pan, for
most of the quesadillas made. The blowtorch
did blacken on the outside and I believe this
was the reason most people were turned off by
it, but my group personally liked it blackens in
the outside.

Graph 3: Appearance Test

The second test we conducted in search of the

perfect quesadilla was texture. For this test we
judged on if the quesadilla had a nice crunchy
outside with a melted cheese inside or if it just
turned out to be mushy and soggy. You can see
our results in Graph 2 below where microwave
This next test was in grease. No one wants a
super greasy dripping quesadilla, so this was
important for us to make sure we tested. This
test showed the flaw with cooking in the pan. As
you can see in Graph 4 below the pan
produced the most grease. You can also
conclude from the Graph 4 that the blowtorch
produced the least grease, this was a big factor
for my group members because we decided
this was one of the make or break qualities for
the perfect quesadilla.

Graph 4: Grease Test

The last test we felt we needed to conduct in

order to conclude the best quesadilla was taste
of course. The pan and the blowtorch were the
two that everyone liked eating the skillet lacked
cheese melt and the microwave ended up being
too soggy every time. You can see this
represented in Graph 5.

Graph 5: Taste Test