Having leftover chili encouraged us to prepare chili dogs
the following Sunday. The family is big
on chili cheese dogs and also adding some chili on top of fries. I made a quick
trip to Aldi for the hot dogs, fries and I did manage to find they carried
cheese sauce. The cheese dip is located next to the display of all the Clancy
label tortilla chips.
Packaging
The cheese dip is packaged in typical clear cheese sauce jar
much like the Tostitos jar of sauce.
This dip is sold next to all the other Clancy products (potato chips,
cheese curls, tortilla chips, nacho chips, etc).
Price
The cost of the fifteen ounce size jar is only $1.99. The
name brand sauce such as Velveeta Cheese toppers cost on average about $3.15
and are only 12 ounces (all four pouches combined). The Tostitos cheeses sold
at the neighborhood Meijer are also priced around three dollars.
Preparation
There is not much effort involved when it comes to heating
up this product. Simply empty contents into microwave safe bowl and cover. Heat
on high for three minutes, but interrupt the cooking time every thirty to forty
seconds to stir product. (While microwaves are convenient, these appliances
cook food very unevenly). I placed a
paper towel over the top of the microwave dish to contain cheese explosions all
over my microwave.
Taste/Texture
The color and consistency of this sauce resembles everything
you would expect when seeing cheese sauce covering up a chili dog, French fries,
nachos, or a baked potato with broccoli. The presentation of the chili dog and
fries really looked legit with this Clancy sauce. Everything seemed to go
swimmingly until that first bite. The first chomp on the chili dog revealed the
usually delicious dog and chili flavor only to be accompanied by the tone of
the chalky, salty and flavorless cheese sauce. Perhaps my expectations were too great. I
understand most of these commercially made cheese sauces are water and oil
based and void of real cheese, but I really expected some sort of cheese
flavoring to come out and announce itself.
That certainly did not happen.
Overall Result
I will not buy the Clancy’s cheese dip again. I may try the
nacho version just to see if there is a defined flavor. I rate a poor buy.
