You must log in or # to comment.
American cheese is just cheddar cheese + sodium citrate. You can make it yourself with cheddar cheese, lemon juice, and baking soda. The sodium citrate acts as an emulsifier, which prevents the cheese from separating when it melts. You can make some really high-quality American cheese, but since this is America, we have agro-businesses creating the cheapest, filler-filled shit possible
Yeah, I get that it’s funny to rag on all things American and all, but American cheese is still cheese, in the same sense that a sausage is still meat. It’s been processed, yes, but aside from some additives the stuff that comes out is the same stuff that went in.
Best part is when those people think we don’t have access to any other cheese, the ignorance is something else
Or that Americans don’t know what “real beer” is because they assume we only ever drink bud light. I can’t walk 5 steps in any direction without passing a craft brewery.
By the American government’s own definition most of it legally cannot be called cheese. Instead its “IMITATION PASTEURIZED PROCESS CHEESE FOOD” or something similar.
Even the stuff that can be labeled cheese only has to be 51% cheese, and 49% can be something else.
Then it’s not American cheese, is it? It’s imitation cheese food. The package in that photo doesn’t even claim so, it just calls itself “singles.” I’m aware there’s a race to the bottom to make the cheapest shittiest substitute for just about anything in the US, but that’s not the discussion.
The discussion is something being American cheese doesn’t automatically mean it’s not cheese. Going back to my own analogy, you could argue the same about sausage if you held up a picture of sausage-style meat type food.
if a sausage that claims to be ‘meat’ is, by majority volume and weight, non-meat filler, though… i daresay there are some people who would take issue with that, and i wouldn’t blame them. Meat can be sausage… but sausage CAN be made with no meat, or almost no meat.
Okay? American cheese is also required to be more than half cheese by weight. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be American cheese, it’d be imitation pasteurized processed cheese food. Yes, you can have sausage with no meat, but you wouldn’t be allowed to label it as meat, though I’m not sure how that’s relevant.
I feel like I must not have made myself clear somehow, because you’re the third person now to make an argument completely adjacent to my point, so maybe I need to make my point clear:
Just because a cheese is an American cheese does not mean it is not real cheese, or even necessarily bad cheese.
That’s it. That’s my point. Full stop. I am genuinely starting to feel like this:
Ummmm… no? I can go to a store and buy a sausage that has 3 ingredients: meat, pepper and natural intestine it’s packed in. I can also go to a store and buy a sausage that has mean, water, salt, sugar, stabilizer, antioxidant and preservative. Are both still just meat? The additives and the processing are the problem. The more of it in food the less healthy it gets.
Nobody’s talking about health, we’re discussing if it is or isn’t what it claims to be. And yes, your second sausage is still meat. Meat with a ton of additives, yes, but still meat. And likewise, you can have high-quality American cheese that is mostly cheddar with a pinch of sodium citrate, or you can have shitty American cheese that’s almost half additives. I know there are shitty products out there, that is, again, not what the conversation is about. The point is just because it’s American cheese doesn’t mean it’s not cheese.
IIRC, “American” is a technical term of art referring to this process, so theoretically one could have American French cheese and so on.
I’ve made american cheese out of parmigiano reggiano. Technically, it’s not just cheese and sodium citrate; you also need extra water depending on how dry the cheese is. It’s a good way to add flavor because you can use stock, or beer, or mountain dew, or whatever.
It’s a good way to add flavor because you can use stock,
I see
or beer,
Hm. Interesting
or mountain dew
*rebel-base alarms go off, personnel evacuating*
That’s my secret for cheese sauces that don’t break. I make the sauce and throw in the tiniest bit of sodium citrate. I’m talking 1/4 tsp per quart of sauce. If you can’t find the pure stuff, a single slice of American cheese produces the same effect.
I’ve made cheese sauce out of cheese that shouldn’t be used for cheese sauce, like romano, and feta, to make absolutely divine sauces that don’t break even when refrigerated.
My grocery store just sells sodium citrate, is that not normal? Love the stuff!
It depends on the area. I’ve never had issues finding it in larger cities, but some of the small towns I’ve lived in and visited didn’t seem to carry anything but the basics.
According to wikipedia:
A mix of ingredients that must include at least 51% cheese (such as a traditionally made cheddar or Colby) is ground, combined with emulsifying agents and other ingredients that may total up to 49%
At least it’s mostly cheese. Probably. Good old 'Murica never fails to underwhelm.
The stuff you get at a restaurant is frequently 100% actual cheese + emulsifier. Even Dairy Queen. The stuff in a grocery store is hit or miss, though. Kraft Singles for example cannot even legally call themselves American Cheese. They are a “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product”. Always check the small print on the label for “American Cheese” that’s on its own.
If anybody wants to watch someone make it: https://youtu.be/0aGNAxN5Z-o
Except Kraft (who emigrated to the US from Canada) patented sodium citrate stabilised cheese in 1916. This was done for logistical reasons since it didn’t need refrigerated storage rather than being explicitly designed as a burger condiment. Kraft was a cheese wholesaler before he was a cheese maker.
American cheese took off in part because was used in rations for ww1 being energy dense and shelf stable.
It was also used as rations in ww2 which was due to a quirk of history before operation paperclip, which was predominantly done out of cold war paranoia.
I get that it’s fun to dunk on America, but it should be possible to do so without resorting to a purely fictitious history.
“Kraft” literally means “power” in German.
Kraft durch Käse
I’m not saying God made Nazis so we could have cheeseburgers, but every timeline without Nazis doesn’t have cheeseburgers.
This is immediately and indelibly part of my worldview. Blocking and hiding any contrary comments
I mean, it’s called Kraft cheese. Does that sound American to you? No! Thats the German word for power. What kind of power? Well you won’t hear me saying it’s nuclear power, but the coincidence is too big.
(Agreed, you shouldn’t listen to the denialists)
The burger was not an import from Germany, rather, many ground meat products were referred to by a German city name, Wiener (Wein being Vienna), Frankfurter (Frankfurt), Berliner ( US president John F Kennedy), ECT
So when they made a sandwich using a style of ground beef introduced by immigrants from Hamburg it got called a “hamburger”, but the practice of frying a ground beef patty and making a sandwich out of it is not from hamburg.
You’ll never guess which German city the cheeseburger was named after
…Cheeseburg, Austria?
That’s mighty confident!
My understanding is that there are plausible competing theories, one of which is that hamburgers were iniquity made in Hamburg.
See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_hamburger or like a book or something
The style of ground meat certainly was, but, there are no records or references to it being cooked as a patty and served as a sandwich in Hamburg.
The first references and evidence we have for it absolutely come from the US, wether it be menus, mentions in news papers, or other textual evidence.
Lots of different claims as to who did it first, but who ever it was, all the historical evidence shows that the concept originated in the US. Probably none of the people who claim to have invented it actually did, but, we do have records from the time that show the concept spreading between diners along the east coast.
“American cheese” is what it’s called in Canada. Here, it’s Back Cheese.
“The one true product”, completely ignoring Texas BBQ
I will say that sliced real Cheddar is also pretty good on burgers. The texture is different, but it doesn’t ruin the cheese or anything.
All kinds of cheese can melt onto a burger patty. The difference is that American cheese melts even when the patty is cold.
Humboldt Fog is an American cheese and is my favorite fancy cheese. I hold it above French and Italian cheeses, it’s freakishly good.
I would buy American Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food slices for grilled cheese sandwich or burger, but the individually wrapped slices piss me off too much. The white (not swiss) American cheese on Cuban toast is a staple breakfast here. It is delicious.
Humboldt fog is an amazing cheese but the fancy cheese place only gets it in occasionally so it’s a rare treat here :<
My kids once bought me a whole wheel of it for Christmas, lol.
It is so good with non- sweet Semillon wine, and (oddly specific I know) I really like it on a baked purple sweet potato, with olive oil and pumpkin seeds.
All cheese is processed.
the outcome of any process is cheese
is that cheese processed? If it’s processed I don’t want it
Funny thing is I think I like melted Swiss cheese more on my burgers.
Same; but I also hate the taste of American cheese-product with a complete passion. I prefer a pure cheese, in any context.
Swiss cheese only has holes because of impurities
Y’all know we have other cheeses in the states too, right?
Imagine if a chinese company made its own shitty version of tofu, and named it “chinese tofu,” and then someone somewhere else concluded that all tofu in China was this shitty kind. That would be the same kind of fallacious assumption as what’s going on here.
“American cheese” is more like a product category than a description of any cheese produced in America.
Just like “Canadian bacon” refers to a specific cut/style of bacon, despite most of the bacon I (a Canadian) have eaten is the kind most probably think about when they think “bacon”.
I don’t think I’ve ever had French toast from France, or Italian sausage from Italy.
And if someone didn’t like Canadian bacon (can’t really blame them; don’t hate it but don’t love it either) and concluded that all bacon produced in Canada was shitty, I can’t say that I would care one way or another. Nationalistic pride never made sense to me. I don’t make Canadian bacon or other bacon. That’s Jim down the road (though don’t tell him I don’t love Canadian bacon).
