Title.
It feels like such a waste.
EDIT: This is the type of cheese I am referring to. It comes wrapped in a piece of plastic then bundled together with x more and all of them get covered in plastic
Title.
It feels like such a waste.
EDIT: This is the type of cheese I am referring to. It comes wrapped in a piece of plastic then bundled together with x more and all of them get covered in plastic
That’s not cheese. It’s “cheese product.”
To my understanding, it is actually made of cheese, just cheese that has been melted, pasteurized to extend shelf life and then cooled back into solid cheese again.
Not quite. You’re almost there. The manufacturers add emulsifying chemicals and preservatives.
Its salted curds like cheese, but its not matured. Instead mineral salts are added which absorb the water, the same sort of stuff used in corned beef, bacon and ham.
The colouring is artificial. Its naturally a light grey colour.
If it was cheese it would be legal to label it as such.
It’s the same reason you couldn’t call peanutbutter “peanuts”
Americans owe the peanut butter grandma a huge debt. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Desmond
It is, though.
American cheese is a type of processed cheese in conjunction with sodium citrate, which permits it to be pasteurized without its components separating.
It’s “orange” and “oil”
You’re thinking of cheese wizz or spray cheese.
No, I’m not.
It’s American cheese. The objectively superior cheese for melting on a burger.
only because it’s easy to melt, not because it actually taste better than other cheese options such as cheddar, swiss, or pepper jack.
Kenji Lopez-Alt has a cool video where he uses American cheese as the emulsifier to make some less-melty cheeses participate in a grilled cheese. I have been using it more for its emulsifying agents than anything lately: https://youtu.be/CD8UTr5mMVk?si=n5xOumvtBqromQtB
Oh, but it does actually taste better specifically on a burger.
American “cheese product” can fuck right off. Gouda melts just as well and actually tastes like…you know…cheese.
If you like eating melted plastic
Edit: replied to wrong comment
Not just any cheese product, but “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product”, because they got in trouble with the FDA a couple of times by calling them “food” hilariously.