[righthand]

Apologies I meant to write:

> I think it’s important to discern that part of sodium citrate is part of the base of citric acid.

That’s because the base of citric acid is citrate. So when combined into a solution with some kind of sodium you get the effects of creating sodium citrate. As you mention it is a thickener. There is sodium in the cheese you are using as well to help this process hence why you only need a little of sodium bicarbonate to help speed up and complete the break down.

As for why it didnt work for you, I also tried it this morning and had no trouble smoothing out and thickening a basic alfredo sauce. It works great. I now have a bowl of breakfast pasta.

Perhaps you didn’t wait long enough for the reaction to take place or your cheese didn’t have enough sodium.