• Punkie@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      American cheese is technically made of cheese, but unlike the jokes, it’s mostly just processed cheese with sodium citrate, a common food additive to make things easier to work with in cooking called an emulsifier. Nile Red covers it extensively in his Nile Blue channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aGNAxN5Z-o

      • myyass@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It was whatever cheese was available mixed together with milk and with emulsifier to make it easier to process. The main purpose was food security. But it became a staple–Government cheese.

        I’m not putting Mimolette on a cheeseburger.

      • insanemantis@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Yeahhh keep that weirdass emulsifier chemical shit out of my cheese. Plastic or not, it clearly does something weird to it

    • Bubs@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      Proper American cheese, (not the cheap slices that are filled with preservatives), is basically solidified cheese sauce.

      Mix cheeses like colby and cheddar with milk and sodium citrate and you get American cheese.

      Can’t be technically labeled cheese any more just like how a milkshake is no longer technically ice cream since it’s been filled with milk.

      Melts really well and is great for burgers. As long as you get the proper deli variety that is.

    • CareHare@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      On the cheese spectrum, it’s on the far end that’s almost plastic. Only by law and in certain countries this would be considered cheese. Serve this in France or Italy and they’ll proper shame you for your ignorance. Most of Europe probably.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      it’s as “american” as cheese can be: white american “prepared cheese product”, individually-wrapped for extra plastic waste.

      you can get actual white american cheese that’s sliced (or block form). the ‘default’ cheese from subway is exactly that: sliced white american cheese.

      the individually-wrapped singles slices and sliced or block american cheese are two different products. in the supermarket the difference is best illustrated by ‘kraft singles’ vs ‘kraft deli deluxe’ products.

  • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    That stuff will turn into plastic and take part of the wall off with it if it gets left it up there.

    I know this because some asshole kid stuck a slice of cheese on my lamp post glass and I had to scrape it off with a razor blade when I found it who knows how long after.

        • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Yes, of course America bad. But specifically on the subject of food standards Canada also quite bad, for the rest Canada is mostly good.

          • darvocet@infosec.pub
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            4 days ago

            Buddy, there is a whole lot you can criticize us on but American cheese is a god damn global national treasure and i will not have it slandered in my presence. Sorry.

            • Thatuserguy@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              This. I’ve tried many cheeses in my life. From imported gruyere, all the way to velveeta. White American is genuinely one of my favorites. Much like white chocolate to standard chocolate, it may not truly be considered cheese, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious. And I will die in this hill

              • toynbee@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                You ever tried taleggio? I very rarely eat cheese, but I once got a portion of this for my wife and our friend. They described it as “good, but weird.”

                I got it because of an old reddit post which featured a gif of it being used to make a grilled cheese. They used some for that and some for mac and cheese.

              • darvocet@infosec.pub
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                4 days ago

                The “it’s not technically cheese” people are exactly the same as “the rules don’t say a dog can’t play on the team”