Curated Tumblr
For preserving the least toxic and most culturally relevant Tumblr heritage posts.
Image descriptions and plain text captions of written content are expected of all screenshots. Here are some image text extractors (I looked these up quick and will gladly take FOSS recommendations):
-web
-iOS
Please begin copied raw text posts (lacking a screenshot that makes it apparent it is from Tumblr) with:
# This has been reposted here to Lemmy as part of the "Curated Tumblr Project."
I made the icon using multiple creative commons svg resources, the banner is this.
Technically Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler invented the first processed cheese in Switzerland in 1911 by heating cheese up and mixing in sodium citrate. Kraft patented the process in the USA in 1916. The term "American Cheese" was later coined to refer to any processed cheese.
The American Cheese Wikipedia page is poorly written with mostly redundant information from other Wikipedia pages... it's just a commonly used word to refer to processed cheese and marketing term.
There's so much inaccurate in this, I don't even know where to start. I'll try and find the comment I made the last time this all came up, and either link or copy it here, but it was months ago, so I have no clue if I'll find it.
The short version is that "American cheese" is cheese, just processed with an emulsifier to make it more stable and melt easier.
The process wasn't german in origin, it was swiss, and even that isn't fully accurate since the process used to make the original processed cheese in the US was slightly different.
And, if you read your packages in the US, where the terminology on packaging is legally defined and limited for cheese, you can tell whether or not it has any cheese in it by the terms used.
That's the short version, and unless I find my previous mini essay, that's all the work I'm willing to do this time around, but all of this is verifiable online if anyone wants to write up their own essay on the subject
Edit: holy shit, I actually found it quick! https://sh.itjust.works/comment/8390398
The swiss are just mountain germans.
I can't deny this :)
holy shit, I actually found it quick!
Missing a bit of info: the extra processing is just grinding up the cheese and adding that emulsifier.
The hamburger did not originate in Germany, despite its name. While the exact origins are debated, it is pretty well agreed that it was created in the US sometimes in the late 19th to early 20th century.
The closest connection to germany that some try to make is an entirely different dish that uses ground beef or pork, which is such a loose connection that you might as well say it originated in Egypt as they were the first civilization to make bread.
The problem is that the origin is "hamburger ~~beef~~ steak" which is the beef patty that came from Germany. This was combined with a sandwich to create a "hamburger sandwich". Over time, the sandwich part was dropped and now here we are.
It wasn't even really a patty as we know it in burgers, it was more like a slice of breakfast sausage.
I'd argue if you put breakfast sausage on a bun it adequately fits the definition of a burger.
The story I heard was that it came to America with Russian Jewish immigrants who took transatlantic ocean liners from Hamburg, which is where it got its name from. (The Jewish origins are important as apparently the beef patty we know originated as a way of prepreparing kosher meals for travelling through areas where options were unknown.)
People seem to forget there's a difference between American cheese and fucking Kraft singles. Kraft singles are like the Spam "ham" of cheeses.
They don't forget, they conveniently ignore the label on kraft singles that says "Cheese Product".
The wider world when they think of American cheese: yellow shiny shrink wrapped oily substance, wiggles like rubber
Me thinking of the American cheese I've eaten all of my life: white, dry-ish, cut from actual blocks at the deli, feels like, well, cheese
Dunno if it's some regional thing or what. The only place I see yellow American is at chain restaurants.
Also, related and timely:
Where I'm from, we have access to sharp american cheese. It slaps.
Pointing to kraft singles and insisting that "american cheese bad" is like pointing to Little Caesars and insisting that pizza is a lousy food.
Little Caesars is pretty darn good, considering it's 1/3 the cost of any other chain.
My point being that if someone didn't like little caesars and concluded that pizza is bad, that opinion is terribly uninformed
Oh, sorry, didn't mean to confuse things. Your point was clear!
Lots of people only think of Kraft singles when they hear American cheese. Nothing beats a burger/grilled cheese with real deli style American cheese
That's not American cheese.
That's the kraft "cheese food product".
American cheese is essentially Swiss that hasn't aged.
Edit: looks like they've changed the label, but it still says "cheese product", so NOT cheese, kraft even admits it.
Swiss that hasn’t aged
But "Swiss cheese" isn't a thing in itself either. The term is used solely in the US.
Switzerland has all kinds of very different kinds of cheese. Aged and young ones.
Kraft is obligated by food regulations. They can not call a product "cheese" if it is not a certain percentage cheese.
It also makes a really good grilled cheese
Yea, people try to get fancy with regular cheese on grilled cheese sandwiches and I hate it. Every one I've tried as soon as it cools off it gets weird and lumpy and gross. Kraft singles stay melty a lot better. Also great on egg sandwiches for the same reason. I do prefer regular cheeses on burgers though.
You didn't ask, but I'll tell you how I make a grilled cheese with normal cheese. I have never experienced "lumpy and gross", but perhaps this is left to the individual.
Choose your bread. Anything you desire. Choose your cheeses. Nothing wrong with mixing it up and using different cheeses. If you have one of the cheese platters in the house that has a variety, this is the prime time to make a grilled cheese. Butter the pan and lay down your first slice of bread (medium-low heat). Lay whatever cheese you like on the inner side of the bread (season if desired). Let the bread toast and the cheese will soften, but you can cover it to let the heat build up enough. Not too long though as you don't want moisture building up. Throw your second slice of bread on top when you want and when the bottom side meets your expectations of toasty, flip the sandwich (during the flip, I flick more butter in for the fresh breaded side to begin its toasting session). You are now faced with the toasted side. Take more cheese and place it on the toasted side. I often use parmesan or asiago (you can use any type), but do not use a lot here. When the second side is toasted to suit, flip it back on to the outer cheese side so it can melt and toast again. Then ply the second toasted side with cheese and flip when the time is right. You will have a nicely toasted cheesy side now with the second toasted cheesy side.
You can season with garlic or garlic salt or some other herb or spice you enjoy. I love making grilled cheese sandwiches like this. They seem fancier and definitely have more flavor. I also welcome any constructive criticism or suggestions to help "up" my game further as I am always looking to improve.
I will not sit here and let grilled cheese be forgotten. American is the best at any melty cheese sandwhich!
Common mistake. American Cheese is cheese. It's a blend, just like Colby Jack, and nobody argues that's not cheese.
Kraft Singles are not cheese. That's different.
American cheese is the best cheese for a cheeseburger because it melts without splitting
- Chef Voldemort
Monterey Jack is a proper cheese. Sure there must be others too, as my Georgian colleague is always complaining you can’t get them in Oz.
Costco is good for a few America-centric foods in Australia.
Nobody aside from my wife knows that the secret to my BBQ is Montreal steak seasoning and my burgers kick ass because my cheese is American.
I'm not saying American cheese is good, but sometimes you just need that shit on a breakfast sandwich.
As an American, American "cheese" (including single slices, and things like spray cheese) fucking suck. Give me a good pepperjack or white cheddar on my burger, not that processed shit.
I like the goo in a can on Ritz or Wheat Thins.
But I have no illusion about what I'm eating.
That kraft garbage is not allowed in my house.
It's full of emulsifiers and nearly flavorless so it can also make sauces super creamy
You can add sodium citrate and milk to just about any cheese to make it melt smoother if you want. Skip adding American entirely.
I can find american cheese a lot easier than I can find sodium citrate
True. But now you have options.
Aren't you just describing more or less how they actually make American cheese? Real cheese (cheddar and ?) mixed with curd and emulsifiers.
It's Velveeta, versus cheddar. Our Velveeta melts much better.