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The potassium citrate in American cheese helps real cheese melt better. You can achieve the same result with sodium citrate and an immersion blender, but not everyone has easy access to or storage for yet another spice.
makes me wonder if a dash of lemon juice and sea salt might have a tangible effect on meltability
Citric acid and sodium citrate are not interchangeable, unfortunately. You could create one from the other with some aqueous baking soda, but it would be best to keep the process seperate from preparing the cheese sauce.
You can look up the Modernist Cuisine Silky Mac and Cheese recipe for more info.
True, I imagine trying to use cheese as your reaction substrate in that way would result in carbonated cheese sauce :]
I have never had any trouble melting actual cheese though when required. I have no idea what kind of scenario this kind of cheese product would be superior.
Many hard cheeses (think parmesan) and even some cheddar cheese aged for more than 6 months don't create a silky emulsion without some help.