WTF is American cheese?
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- Why do some cheeses melt into ooey gooey deliciousness, while others end up a clumpy mess (and WTF is going on with American cheese)?
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆-𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆:
-Fox PF, Guinee TP, Cogan TM, McSweeney, PLH (2017). Fundamentals of Cheese Science || Cheese as an Ingredient: p 629-679. doi.org/10.101...
-Fox PF, Guinee TP, Cogan TM, McSweeney, PLH (2017). Fundamentals of Cheese Science || Processed Cheese and Substitute/Imitation Cheese Products: p 589-627. doi.org/10.100...
-Kapoor R, Metzger LE, Biswas AC, Muthukummarappan K (2007). Effect of Natural Cheese Characteristics on Process Cheese Properties. Journal of Dairy Science, 90(4), 1625-1634. doi.org/10.316...
-Pastorino J, Hansen CL, McMahon DJ (2003). Effect of Sodium Citrate on Structure-Function Relationships of Cheddar Cheese. Journal of Dairy Science 86 (10): 3113 - 3121. doi.org/10.316...
-Sözeri AD, Huppertz T. (2023) Melting of natural cheese: A review. InternationaI Dairy Journal 142, 105648. doi.org/10.101...
-Templeton HL, Sommer HH. Some observations on processed cheese. Journal of Dairy Science 1930; 13:203-220. doi.org/10.316...
𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 (𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲) 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀:
www.seriouseat...
www.chemistryi...
themolecularci...
www.cheesescie...
cheesescientis...
pubsapp.acs.or...
www.vox.com/th...
www.factmr.com...
culturecheesem...
www.cdr.wisc.e...
www.americaste...
𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘀:
• Why Do Some Cheeses Me...
• How to Pick the Right ...
• How you've been meltin...
• Homemade sodium citrat...
• The Delicious Science ...
• Molten gold - the scie...
• Science: Love Grilled ...
• The Science of the Per...
• Making American cheese...
• What Cheese makes the ...
𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄-𝘁𝗼'𝘀:
modernistcuisi...
modernistcuisi...
www.seriouseat...
www.seriouseat...
www.americaste...
𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰:
Dean Sommer. Cheese & Food Technologist at the Center for Dairy Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison
MinuteFood is created by Kate Yoshida, Arcadi Garcia & Leonardo Souza, and produced by Neptune Studios LLC.
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Wait, *that*'s the formula of the melting salt?
"NaCHO cheese" fits in more ways than I expected, then.
Haha I had to look up if there was a "real" relationship between nachos and the chemical makeup... Turns out no - it's completely a coincidence. The word nacho comes from the guy who "invented" nachos - Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya. 😂
Most organic sodium salts can be written NaCHO with little numbers under each element. Sodium citrate isn't special there.
@@Hailfire08 interesting! I had no idea!
hehe chemistry joke
but yeah lots of organic compounds are just various combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, so CHO can be used to denote the composition, but for most functional purposes the carbon structure is more important than the composition so it's usually written differently
@@danriddick914 That's simply because C,H,O are the essential elements in any carbohydrate. C=carbo(n), H2O=hydrate(water). So it's a nice coincidence any organic salt would end in xCxHxO, with x's stating the number of atoms in each molecule.
Since I'm early I just wanted to say you totally changed how I see food and you took a strict STEM non-food lover who always forgot to eat and turned her into someone who really enjoyed cooking. Thank you, because I (and also all of my friends who reap the rewards of my new interest) appreciate you greatly.
THANK YOU! Comments like this make it all really worthwhile!
@@MinuteFoodI'm sure I can speak for many to say it's really validating to see someone break down cooking into more scientific steps. It makes it very accessible for people who never had someone to teach them all the tricks to how to get a sense for what you're doing. For example, I never really knew how to cook based on look or smell and your videos make me feel less crazy for just wanting a clear explanation on what color or temperature something should be to be accurate.
@@MinuteFood Yea, I love being able to support this channel through patreon since it is like paying for a very affordable cooking class that deep dives into the science behind all the choices made in the kitchen and explains it in an incredibly clear and easy to understand way
Engineer here. She absolutely made me way more interested in food as both an art and a science
And for those who may be opposed to buying sodium citrate because it's a "scary chemical powder", you can make a liquefied version of it by mixing citrus juice and baking soda
IMO anybody freaking out over "scary chemical powder" should probably stay out of the kitchen 😆
And just to expand this, sodium citrate is literally just citric acid that's been neutralised with sodium bicarbonate, all of which are super common in food (and, particularly the latter, in your own body)
@@pufthemajicdragonit's just as processed and chemically as white sugar, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
@@pufthemajicdragon You misspelled chemistry lab. That's what a good aand wellstocked kitchen is :)
@@DaxCyro Chemistry is easier than cooking, because with chemistry if you follow procedure and something still goes wrong, you can simply blame the creator of the procedure or the chemicals for not being pure enough. With cooking you have no one to blame but yourself.
You also don't need to buy sodium citrate as a product! You can make it (if you're ok with the lime or lemon flavor) using lemon/lime juice and sodium bicarbonate (make sure to stop when the bubbling stops)
You can also use alka-seltzer
Came down to say the same thing! Also you could make a béchamel sauce and add cheese to that probably a richer sauce but worth it as long as you don't break it
You can also use powdered citric acid instead of lemon or lime juice. Just mix the two with just enough water to dissolve them. Note that it's an endothermic reaction, so you'll need to either wait a couple of minutes for the reaction to absorb enough heat from the air to finish or add a little bit of heat yourself.
I feel like I'm in bizarro world rn. I've been arguing for years that you can make your own cheese using this method and it's been like talking to a brick wall.
With citric acid is cheap enough, why bother with lemon? If you're feeling chemist, use lye instead (make sure it's stoichiometric though).
To me the most offensive thing about american cheese is the way it's packed in singles. Can we please not waste so much plastic?
You can get it from the deli counter in most stores. It will usually be better quality, and taste more like real cheddar too, even from the same brand. Get the sliced on demand, not pre-sliced.
@@disjustice Only downside is that you have to keep it cooled or they will kind of stick together and be difficult to grab as individual slices later.
The second most offensive, after the fact that it tastes poorly, as most industrial food.
@@imadork123 just buy a block of cheese and a cheese slicer, do the slicing yourself when you need it, keeps the cheese fresh
@@imadork123 kraft deli slices somehow are easy to separate even after warming up, but as the other commenter said, we could just slice on-demand
Cheese... I grated my teeth for this pun at the end.
Ain’t easy being cheesy
Gouda one. I’m fondue of your puns.
It should also note that kraft's basic american singles is a loose term like "cheese product" because they cut it with whey to save money. Where the kraft Deli Deluxe american is a "pasteurized process cheese" the more regulated term and what kraft was selling pre 00's.
I know WAY too much about melting cheese going into this video. The perfect grilled cheese is knowledge many died to attain.
Okay so if you're on a budget you, you can actually mix baking soda with lemon juice in a pan, making adhock sodium citrate solution for your cheese melting needs! You could evaporate this to get the powder seen in the video, but I've used it for macaraoni sauces and nacho dips just as is.
(edited after ben's reply, thanks ben!)
Thank you!
You don't even need to heat the baking soda. Just mix the baking soda and citrus juice and wait a few minutes (it's an endothermic reaction, so it's got to pull enough heat from the air to work, or you can gently warm the mixture). Also, if the flavor of citrus is a problem, you can instead use powdered citric acid and just enough water to dissolve them. You can usually find citric acid in the spice aisle of your local megamart.
@@benjamingeiger Ta!
Twokinds pfp
W
You can also just buy sodium citrate
Call me crazy, but I care more about how my cheese tastes than how it melts.
Crazy
Instead of sodium citrate, you can just mix American and other cheeses. There's enough citrate in the American to melt other cheese too.
My go to mac uses equal parts American and cheddar by weight. I use the same total weight as the weight of dry pasta, so usually 1lb pasta with 0.5lb each of cheddar and American. Add a bit of milk, sometimes some butter, salt if needed, black pepper, and I sometimes add a touch of garlic powder, and it's delicious. Just make the sauce and dump in the cooked pasta and it's done.
Why would I ever mix American cheese with gouda or mozzarella or emmenthal or gruyère? Sounds like a good way to make good cheeses worse. Just leave the American cheese out of the recipe and use other, basic European cheese, and there you go: the taste is wonderful, and you're not coating your arteries with horrors. ;) (and keep your milk, butter and salt away)
@@nicojarto melt it duh pay attention
@@nicojar Most people can buy american cheese at a grocery store. Few grocery stores sell sodium citrate, even if it's available online. You can get away with using very little american cheese if you just want to melt another cheese, probably something like 1:5 or maybe even 1:10. You wouldn't even be able to taste the american at that point.
I just happen to know from experimentation that I like the taste of 50/50 american and cheddar for mac-n-cheese. I've tried it with more or less cheddar and didn't like it as much; it just doesn't taste like a "proper" american mac-n-cheese when you use too much of another cheese, but it tastes a bit too bland for my taste without enough of it. But not everyone wants an "authentic american" version of mac-n-cheese, so they can do whatever they want. The beauty of mac-n-cheese is in it's customizeability.
@@nicojar a lot of block and slice cheeses you find in grocery stores (at least in the US) like gouda, gruyere, meunster, are actually basically just american cheese with different flavors, for that matter, american cheese is basically just normal cheese that's been melted with sodium citrate and a bit of liquid (milk/water), it's really not that weird, scarcely different from normal cheese, the taste is another matter though
@@nicojar
I adore cheese, but let's be honest here: if you don't want your arteries to be "coated with horrors", cheese is not the food item for you.
Aged hard cheese taste the best both in solid and melted form!
yup. the sodium citrate "hack" is something Adam Ragusea turned me on to a couple years ago.
I think the important distinction people miss is it is not fake cheese its MADE of cheese.
It is real cheese
It's just real cheese and a little bit more
It is often made of as little real cheese as possible while adding as much oil and water as possible. Because oil and water are cheaper than cheese. The iconic colour comes froom food dies. The "little bit more" often makes up half of the ingredients by weight.
@@BunjiKugashira42that's Kraft singles, Velveeta, and generic brands trying to copy them, and are legally not American cheese.
Depending on how close you live to cows milk might be cheaper than oil. In America dairy production is very heavily subsidized, they actually have price fixing laws about milk so the market never collapses from oversupply. Milk protein products can sometimes be found for the same or lower price as flour, because their processed not technically milk anymore they don’t fall under the price fixing laws. It’s funny the lengths the govt will go for people who aren’t average, like socialism but only for industrialists.
FYI "The Laughing Cow" is actually French, to this day in Europe it goes by the name "La vache qui rit" or "LVQR".
There's also a variant brand that goes by "kiri"
> it goes by the name "La vache qui rit"
It actually depends on the place and time.
10 years ago, its name was mostly translated. Nowadays, most countries use the French name,
And in some of them, both versions exist side-by-side.
In the UK it's The Laughing Cow
In Spain it's "La Vaca que Ríe"!
It most certainly is *_Die Lachende Kuh_* in Germany and *_Krówka Śmieszka_* in Poland
My only issue with american cheese is more with kraft. WAY too much plastic waste (if you buy it in other brands or from the deli counter its more often packaged with paper separating it which is a lot better for the environment.)
I am consistantly amazed at how many people only think of American cheese as the Kraft garbage, as if they can't go to the deli counter and get american that tastes 10x better and doesn't waste all that plastic.
Also the whole thing with American cheese not being "real" cheese is just like how basically any sandwich bread is "enriched" bread (per FDA standards) because it has more than the 4 ingredients of four, salt, yeast, and water. Even adding eggs to bread means it's not "bread", it's "enriched bread". Does that make sandwich bread from the store any more real bread than american cheese is cheese? Utter nonsense 🤦🏻♂️
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
As a non-American who doesn't have Kraft in their country, I never got the hate for American cheese for this reason
If you get Kraft Deli Deluxe, it doesn't have the plastic and it tastes way better.
"...when you try to melt hard or aged cheese you often end up with a chewy mass of proteins sitting in a mess of oil."
You say that as if its a bad thing.
Yep, That's the perfect consistency to dip some baguette or ciabatta in, on a cold winter evening for starter to dinner. Plus herbs and spices. In fact, I'd often add some olive oil to get more of that oilyness. I found the part of the video with that in the pan looked much more appetizing than the yellow-orange goo.
@@rivi7197 Or you can let the rest caramelize and solidify, and crunch into it when cooled.
@@firstcynic92 Provoleta al la chilena: ua-cam.com/video/1p6sjNt_GeE/v-deo.html
It sounds (and tastes) awesome.
Yeah I love extra sharp cheddar quesadillas!
Edit: And the caramelized cheese bits are awesome!
Oh wow I wasn’t expecting this to be so fascinating, and something that I’ll probably end up applying in the kitchen.
Another way to make cheese creamy is starch, used in pasta dishes like cacio e pepe and carbonara, where the starchy water is used to melt the aged cheese and, starch being an emulsifier, it keeps fats, water, and proteins all nice and suspended together
Exactly, this is the best way to obtain a creamy cheese sauce without using extra fats or crappy ingredients like American "cheese"
@@mangomongomognomagnobe less pretentious
@@GabrielButnaru yes, pasta water is used to make cacio e pepe creamy, but it isn't used for carbonara. Pouring the beaten eggs and grated pecorino in a bowl with the hot pasta is enough to cook them and you obtain the perfect consistency
@@GabrielButnaru I'm adding cream to my carbonara and I hope your nonna is rolling in her grave.
Be
Less
Pretentious
Starch is a thickener but not, strictly speaking, an emulsifier. It's just that starch thickened sauces take ages to settle out so it works OK if you serve it there and then. As explained in the video though, it's really not that big of a deal to use American cheese since it's just cheese and sodium citrate (aka neutralised citric acid).
I love your super helpful description boxes
Mmmm, 64 slices of American cheese
63...
Um, breaking down into a gooey mass in a pool of oil is perfect for cheese on toast and other meals. The oil goes into the toast and the gooey mass is lovely. I therefore refuse the appellation "bad melter".
The whole american cheese isn't cheese thing always grates me. It's like someone saying meatloaf isn't ground meat, which is true but nobody would say it's illegitimate because ground beef + some other ingredients isn't "fake" meat. American cheese is real cheese with some milk and melting salts!
To argue this one a bit, it's also the basis of why Taco Bell can't call it's meat, meat since they're replacing half of it with grain because it's cheaper.
The distinction is important but you've gotta be aware of the context.
(Like how Ice cream must be made out of dairy which is why many calls themselves "frozen dessert")
Same here, just mixing Colby and Cheddar plus sodium citrate is a pasteurized process American cheese. Replace up to 49% by weight with other dairy products like cream, buttermilk or whey and that’s pasteurized process American cheese food, and I still think that counts as cheese because it’s still almost purely dairy. It’s only when you get to stuff like Kraft singles that use concentrated milk protein powder where there’s a decent argument that it’s no longer cheese.
When you get into the better American cheeses, you get something more like cheese. Kraft Deli Deluxe White American is a "Pasteurized process American cheese with added calcium" but the Singles are "Pasteurized prepared cheese product". I would call the Deli Deluxe actual cheese, and prefer it.
I can't find any examples on the internet, but there are singles you can get that are terribly cheap and I think I've seen the leading ingredient be corn oil. Maybe some milk components thrown in. Run. Fast.
It's often another way to annoy Americans.
Greats me 🎉
See Cheese in a title, and immediately click.
The cheese must flow
I LOVED the chemical curls!!! 🥰
And the taste of the plastic individual packaging and its microplastic residues is incredible and totally healthy !
There's actually zero evidence on how microplastics affect us, or whether or not they even have any negative effects.
Buy it in a block then? No one is making you buy American in singles any more than they are making you buy cheddar, pepper jack, provolone, or any other cheese in singles.
If you're curious about cheese that melts amazingly, and the dishes that go with them, check out the French Mont d'Or, and the dish "boîte chaude". Melting and browning a boxed authentic cheese with a bit of white wine and tons of flavor (for people afraid of very funky cheeses: this one is actually mild) in an oven for a while and dipping your charcuterie
Sounds delicious, though as an American, naming a dish "hot box" makes my inner child giggle at the vague fart joke adjacent to a cheese dish
"American cheese - which was actually developed in Switzerland, and patented by a Canadian entrepeneur..."
That's the most american thing I've ever heard.
No need to buy sodium citrate, just mix citric acid with baking soda to make some.
I don't think the Dutch are going to be very happy with the way you pronounce Gouda
Rhymes with "how", not "who"!
Meh, they get the pronunciation wrong all the darn time. Probably on us for making it difficult to begin with 😂
Sodium citrate is so useful, idk why everyone doesn't have it in their kitchen.
came for the science, stayed for the really cute anthropomorphic graphics. They're so cute! Thank you!
American may be the gooiest melter, but I prefer a grilled cheese sandwich that's more stretchy than gooey
What is American cheese exactly? Is it all sliced cheese OR all cheese manufactured in USA?
@@user-sd9sn7wf3o it's called american cheese because it was invented in america. James Kraft was a canadian but immigrated to the USA. In the video it's mentioned it was to get cheese to last longer. The reason was James Kraft was a door to door cheese salesman. Obviously going door to door for 12 hours with a lot of it during the hottest times during the day would make the cheese go bad quickly. So he invented to cheese so it could be hauled around in the sun without worry. It also gets called american cheese in other places because it's an army ration since ww1 and plenty of americans love trading ration food for fresh stuff which is why a lot of countries love American Cheese and Spam since they kept for a long time and were traded to them by the americans soldiers.
@@user-sd9sn7wf3o There are two cheeses commonly called American cheese
There's the cheese product like that you find on a McDonald's burger, then there's American cheddar which is...cheddar
@@BaeBunni Not sure about other countries, but you can't actually get American cheese here in Australia.
For a good melting cheese, I stick to Colby.
Is it maybe just not labeled as such? I see Kraft singles on Woolworth's online store@@ConstantlyDamaged
As soon as you mentioned adding sodium citrate to other cheeses to make them melty, I was like, is Adam Ragusea’s video in the description? Yes it is. Also I absolutely need one of the NaCHO shirts that Dan from ATK rocks.
One thing you have to take into consideration if you're using sodium citrate to make an aged or hard cheese melt smoothly for, say, a dip, is that if you don't add enough other liquids to the resulting mix, you have to keep it warm or it will solidify back into a block, not useful at all as a dip.
if American cheese was developed to be shelf stable, why are the slices individually packed?
As a European, the concept of individually packing cheese slices seems stupid and wasteful to me. Also, imagine wanting to use large quantities of cheese and you have to unpack every single slice. Also your cheese is getting maximum microplastics exposure
While it's definitely over packaged I think the reason is all the cheese would melt together otherwise. Now why it needs to be fully wrapped in plastic instead of just interspersed with butcher paper I cannot tell you. Probably just pennies cheaper and companies don't care about anything else.
It's not always individually packed slices, you can buy a block or a spray or a spread... In Europe, check Norwegian "brunost". Same idea. ;)
Packed slices are for burgers.
@@nicojar Sure, you can buy cheese in blocks (i consider sprays and spread as something very different), but I've never seen a pack of pre sliced cheese in any American media.
On the oter hand, I've never seen individually packed cheese slices in any European super market. I haven't spend much time in Norway tho, so brunost could be something that I missed
@dream_weaver6207 when I was a kid, the slices were a little firmer and not individually wrapped. It's now much softer and sticks to itself, hence the extra plastic
If they're individually packed, they're more shelf stable. You can open one slice without exposing all the others to the elements, thus allowing the other slices to stay fresh longer.
Cool video! I’m a little sad you didn’t talk about the young cheeses that don’t melt at all, like paneer, but it’s not a big deal!
Sorry, but that chewy mass of protein sitting in a mess of oil looks delicious.
when i was young i always tought cheese was bad because i only ate those cheeses that come in slices, but when i ate those cheeses that come in cubes along with some ham i was shocked at how good cheese was
I used to work for a small chain of pizza places that focused on delivery. Since we wanted people to get their pizza as fast as possible, we cooked the pizzas at very hot temperatures. We actually used conveyor ovens. We used a mixture of hard cheddar and mozzarella cheese, about 2 parts mozzarella to 1 part cheddar. I had thought we did that because of the taste, and we did. But one day, a cheese salesman was trying to get us to switch mozzarella brands. I ground up some of the new brand and made a pizza with it. However, when it came out of the oven, the cheese was burnt. The owner said, "Oh, that's just because we didn't add any cheddar. The cheddar raises the browning temperature so we can cook the pizzas at a higher temperature." That's another way of saying that the hard cheddar requires more heat to loosen its grip on its fats and moisture.
Was thinking about this the other day, thanks for answering all my cooking questions!
As always - Love the very informative and educational video - all presented in a fun way - I keep learning things - big thanks for the great video!
PLEASE PEOPLE: Don't buy the packaged American. Buy Dietz and Watson deli! It tastes four times as good! It is deli-only cheese. I did an experiment, which was buying four different types of deli cheese and simply tasting them alone. Dietz was CLEARLY a cut above the rest!
One other thing that people need to consider as well with respect to texture and flavor is comparing American cheese slices versus having it cut straight off the loaf at the deli. There is a *very* distinct difference between the two. The cheese slices that you would get from Kraft or whomever tends to be very plastic-y in both taste and texture. But getting American cheese directly off the loaf at the deli tends to be more flavorful and smoother. We actually buy entire 5-pound bricks and shred it for pizza instead of mozarella.
Muenster cheese makes for a better melt in a grilled cheese than American cheese.
As i'm needlessly pedantic, I'd like to point out that gouda isn't french, it's dutch. So the "OU" in gouda is not pronounced like "oo" (as the French would do). Gouda rhymes with Louder. but also the dutch pronounce the G like the scotch pronounce the "ch" in "Loch ness".
Liked your nice way of presenting the knowledge around this cheese. Especially the part with the Sodium Nitrate.
Here just a side information. In german they are called "Scheibletten" and in italian "Sottilette".
By the way for me (german/italian speaker) it sounds funny how you pronounce Gouda. With no "o" sound. But nevermind. The Dutch they pronounce the "G" simliar to an "Hr". Even difficult to explain.
Greetings
As a french and a cheese junkie i have to confirm that i do not see this as cheese.
But more importantly, if you're happy with it, I'm 100% fine with it.
As a person who cooks with cheese a lot, I feel like I've just leveled up from watching this
I love my Sodium Citrate. Not only mac n cheese and nacho cheese, but "Bread Soup" are easy peasy with it. Just make a very loose version of the cheese sauce with broth, then toss in all of your old-but-not-moldy bread. Classic 1700s recipe made easier thanks to modern science!
"[American cheese is] the undisputed champion of ooey gooey goodness"
Ooey, check
Gooey, check
Goodness? Not even close.
"Better" is pretty subjective. I really prefer a grilled cheese with cheddar -- I think the oil separating a bit and soaking into the bread is a plus. Melted cheddar might not look appetizing sitting in a pan, but that's not where I want to be eating it from anyway.
The US pronounciation of Gouda kills me (as someone who worked near the Dutch city of Gouda [How-duh] for some time)
While we're being pedants, my pet peeve is not "American cheese isn't really cheese", but "Kraft singles aren't American cheese". When you go to a deli and ask for "American cheese", you are getting something chemically different from what you find in Kraft singles. Actual "American cheese" is about halfway between "real cheese" and Kraft singles.
So, what you're saying is that American cheese is not a cheese in the same fashion that a tomato is not a vegetable.
Reminds me of the old slogan the cheese-makers used in their ads:
"Never underestimate the power of pasteurized process cheese food"
Or something like that. I still like it okay, but by far I prefer deli style American to singles. Or any sliced proper cheese, even if it doesn't melt. But I'll buy a liquid sauce now and then, because I suck at making my own.
Great video 👍
Why is american cheese regarded as unhealthy, one slice of it has about 4/1 of your calcium and 1/4 the calories of regular cheese by mass.
It really depends on what you make. For sauces or so, I use melting cheese (in Germany we call it that way) that is a paste. For bread or burgers, I stopped using them and used regular cheese. I like my cheese with more flavor and for applications where you can control the heat or time, its perfect. You won't get a very liquid cheese but its soft and warm, what makes some cheese taste better. But you don't need the flavor. Here we make a cheese leek soup. The soup base is water, melting cheese and crème fraîche, to basically water, fat and protein. There is also some vegetable broth as base. It only should taste like a cheese base but not specific to any cheese.
My problem with the American cheese is not cheese is that all cheeses are processed. That’s what curdling and aging is a way to process milk
This video just answered a question which I had for many years. In the Monty Python's Flying Circus "Cheese Shop" sketch, John Cleese asks cheese shop owner Michael Palin if he has any cheese for sale. Cleese proceeds to name virtually every cheese known to man in a vain hope of finding one that the shop actually has for sale. The one cheese that Cleese never asks for is American cheese. Now I have an answer as to why he never asked for it.
Cheese is the most delicious emulsion in existence and I will not be eking questions at this time.
I love using sodium citrate to make mac and cheese. However I don't keep sodium citrate on hand because it is too
niche of an ingredient. Instead I keep my pantry stocked with baking soda and citric acid and react them as needed at a ratio of 1 part baking soda to 0.84 parts citric acid.
MinuteFood, great content bro
The cheese being stirred in that pan was most definitely a liquid.
Stuff like this is why I'm alright calling plant-based cheese "cheese", because if it melts like cheese, and tastes like cheese, as is composed of those things mentioned (protein, moisture, fats, calcium, etc), then it's cheese in my books!
What I love doing for my toasted cheesy sandwiches is to mix mozzarella for meltyness with finely grated parmesan for flavour to get the best of both worlds.
Nice. I got a ton of sodium citrate to descale my kettle and coffee machine; now I can use it to make my cheese melty as well!
Adam Ragusea also made a great video about making processed cheese like effect with other cheeses with sodium citrate
Feta cheese melts remarkably well(try microwaving it or adding chunks to a hot tomato based sauce ). It’s not exactly melting but more of a softening and change in flavor and unlike cold feta It pairs well with sweet flavors . Feta is a very fatty and moisture rich cheese and minimally aged so considering the chemistry in the video it makes sense .
Adding a couple of slices of American cheese to any cheese mixture has enough emulsifiers to make a sauce out of any cheese mixture.
Huh, interesting! Thanks for the video! :)
Saying "american cheese isn't cheese" is like saying "sausage isn't meat" because it has other things added to it, aka salt, to bind the proteins. Like all things there are high quality and low quality versions. I understand the FDA-distinction of identifying ingredients and labeling differently (which I wish they would do more of TBH) but refusing it because of the "process"/"processed" definition is silly.
*grate* ful for is so smooth it almost didn't register as a pun
Loved it!
Might not be meaningful in the kitchen, but health-wise it’s pretty important. What exactly are those other fats added? It’s probably plant oils with very different properties and health implications than animal fats.
And super easy to make at home with just grated cheese, milk, and sodium citrate. Add more milk and … wait, you just covered that. Damn it.
If you don't have any sodium citrate lying around, you can also just throw a slice or two of American cheese into a cheese sauce. It's so bland it won't really affect the flavor, and there is more than enough spare emulsifying agents in the slice to smooth out your more stubborn but more flavorful cheeses.
I was taken aback by the mention of "Laughing Cow". That's "la vache qui rit" to me, and I'm not from a place where people speak French. But I guess Americans speak even less French...
I was expecting her to go into detail on melted grated hard cheeses vs ungrated. Cause melted a layer of grated parm on a pan is amazing.
This reminds me of the Adam reguesea series “WTF is”.
They aren’t allowed to call it “cheese”. It’s cheese food product. It’s also tasteless compared to even the mildest cheese
....THANKS FOR MAKING IT CLEAR WHAT NILERED WAS DOING AT SOME OF HIS VIDS
...HEHE
Very interesting, however sadly my main take away is the shocking information that la vache qui rit is called "the laughing cow" in the usa - I'm not even french but excusez-moi??
(Also showing fondue in the end is a bit misleading, fondue is often made with aged cheese and iirc it melts nicely because if the wine put in it which apparently also improves meltiness)
3:42 I'm going to have to verify expectations here: what was referenced in "yes, that Kraft"?
There's a popular American brand of americna cheese slices called "Kraft", they're known as "kraft slices"
Adam Ragusea made his own sodium citrate with baking soda and lemon juice.
IN A CAVE!
you guys have the best puns :)
Punny, dearest. Wake up! I'm on the last paragraph of the script and I forgot to add a single cheese joke into the video. We need to make up for lost time!
Is it just me? I really like the music and especially, when the story gets deeper there is this cute part. Is it in public domain?
it might be because i use headphones but why is the music so loud?
food theory has got some competition
Thanks! Well explained.
Imo if a thing is just cheese + a little bit of other stuff, it's still cheese. Like do we say cheese with herbs in it not cheese? Of course not. Adding emulsifiers likewise should not disqualify it from being cheese.
Another thing is not all american is mild, sharp cheeses exist. Can recommend Cooper Cheese. They sell _really good_ american. A good common brand is deli sliced Land o Lakes white american (the prepackaged slices arent good, deli is the best). It's fairly sharp and flavorful.
Nice video! Very gouda advice! 🧀😂 (pun stolen from 06:16.)
Another technique I have heard of (I think Babish showed it) is that you can add a small amount of American cheese to another cheese to get some of those emulsifying salts into your cheese mixture.
But then you ruin the real cheese.
@@qbreezy2417 I said small amount.
i dont recall a babish video about that, but there is an adam ragusea one
@@jotch_7627 perhaps. It was a video about making Mac and cheese different ways
@@qbreezy2417the real cheese
Is YoungGouda a rapper already? If not I dibs that and will start learning to rap now.
American Cheese gets unfairly hated on. Interesting to see a video actually giving it a fair assessment.
Because it's not cheese
@@Miguel_Noetherit's literally made from cheese. who cares if it's not "authentic" or whatever
@@S1neWav_ it contains 51% cheese most likely it would be even lower if not for regulations
@@einkar4219 then hate on large companies for adding a ridiculous amount of preservatives
@@S1neWav_or just ban calling things that are not cheese a cheese.
It is a fake advertisement, you can't limit producers to not produce something but you can label it properly.
American cheese is just ultra processed food
Murica Cheese ain't cheese, it's a sauce!!!
Lionfield, come here! You need to learn this so you can understand American cheese better
As a Swiss I really have a different understanding what cheese is.
Skips the "define better" step. Thanks for the info, I'm going to do some experiments now 🥼