• balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    23 hours ago

    You’re responding to someone whose point is really clear but to quote an article on the history of American cheese:

    The first step in transforming American cheese into the distinct entity it is today can be traced back to Switzerland in 1911 when Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler developed the world’s first processed cheese by shredding Emmentaler cheese and heating it with sodium citrate into a firm, unified substance upon its cooling.

    This swiss process was then picked up by a canadian by the name of Kraft looking to make a cheese with longer shelf stability for the purpose of being left open at delis for slicing. It was made by melting cheddar chunks together. And stirring.

    The term american comes from British snobbiness.

    The inability to legally call it cheese comes from the natural cheese lobby. If it matches this criteria it cannot be called cheese:

    a stable concoction of natural cheese cheese bits mixed with emulsifying agents [used to make] a homogenous plastic mass.

    That having been said american cheese is disgusting and anyone who purposely eats it is insane to me.

    • Skunk@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      21 hours ago

      So the term “Swiss cheese” for those industrial blocks is legitimate, it’s our fault 😔

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      20 hours ago

      American cheese is fine, don’t conflate the real cheese (which is just Swiss without aging or bacteria) with Kraft American Cheese Food product.

      I’ve had American cheese that wasn’t the processed thing most people think of, just a cheese made from dairy, like any other cheese.

      The problem is in labeling - since American cheese can be anything from real cheese to the processed stuff, people don’t know what they’re getting unless they know the producer.