American cheese

This article is about a specific type of cheese. For cheeses of the United States generally, see List of American cheeses. For the album, see American Cheese (album).

Wrapped slices of American cheese

American cheese is a type of processed cheese. It can be orange, yellow, or white in color, is mild, salty, and faintly sweet in flavor, has a medium-firm consistency, and has a very low melting point.

Very early in its history, American cheese was only white in color—as it was made from a blend of cheeses (most often including cheddar cheese) which were originally only white. However, the later versions are often a yellow hue due to the addition of annatto, a sweet and nutty seasoning added to cheddar and to colby so that by the late 1800s American cheese was often simply called "yellow cheese."

Today’s American cheese is, by law, required to be manufactured from at least 2 types of cheese. Because its manufacturing process differs from "unprocessed"/raw/natural cheeses, American cheese can not be legally sold under the name (authentic) "cheese" in the US. Instead, federal (and even some state) laws mandate that it be labeled as "processed cheese" if simply made from combining more than one cheese, or "cheese food" if dairy ingredients such as cream, milk, skim milk, buttermilk, cheese whey, or albumin from cheese whey are added. As a result, sometimes even the word "cheese" is absent, altogether, from the product's labeling in favor of, e.g., "American slices" or "American singles". In the United Kingdom, packs of individually wrapped slices are labeled as "singles", although they are commonly referred to as "cheese slices".

The marketing term, "American Cheese", for processed cheese—combined with the ubiquitous prevalence of processed cheeses in the US, versus outside it—has led to the terms American cheese and "processed cheese" being used interchangeably in America. However, the term, "American cheese" has a legal definition as a type of pasteurized processed cheese under the American Code of Federal Regulations.

A square of American cheese is a component of the traditional cheeseburger, a popular food in North America.

History

Origins

British colonists made cheddar cheese soon upon their arrival in North America. By 1790, American cheddars were being exported back to England. According to Robert Carlton Brown, author of The Complete Book of Cheese, "The English called our imitation Yankee, or American, Cheddar, while here at home it was popularly known as yellow or store cheese". In 1878, the total export of American cheese was 355 million pounds per year, with an expected growth to 1,420 million pounds.

After the official invention of processed cheese in 1911, and its subsequent popularization by James L. Kraft in the late-1910s and the 1920s, the term "American cheese" rapidly began to refer to this variety, instead of the traditional but more expensive cheddars also made and sold in the US. The latter had already begun to be produced on an industrial scale in the 1890s, leading to the term "factory cheese".

The Oxford English Dictionary defines American cheese as a "cheese of cheddar type, made in the U.S." and lists 1804 as the first known usage of "American cheese", occurring in the Frankfort, Kentucky newspaper Guardian of Freedom. The next usage given is in 1860 by Charles Dickens in his series The Noncommercial Traversal.

The English method of producing cheddar cheese was known in America as "the Joseph Harding Method".

Modern varieties

Even though the term “American cheese” has a legal definition in the United States as a type of pasteurized processed cheese, products called "American cheese" are by no means identical. Depending on the additives and the amounts of milk fat, oil, and water added during emulsification, the taste and texture of solid American cheese varies. As a result, some varieties (e.g. "American cheese" and "American processed cheese") bear remarkable similarity to traditional/unprocessed cheeses, while other varieties (e.g. "American cheese food" and "American cheese product") are much more like Velveeta or Cheez Whiz.

The taste and texture of different varieties of American cheese vary considerably, and mostly depend on the percentage of cheese-versus-additives used during emulsification. Varieties with lower percentages of additives tend to taste more like traditional cheeses. Depending on the food manufacturer, the color of the cheese (orange, yellow, or white) may indicate different ingredients or processes. Typically, yellow to orange American cheese is made with cheeses (such as Cheddar or Colby cheese) that are seasoned with annatto, while white American cheese is made with cheeses (such as White Cheddar or Jack cheese) which do not contain annatto.

The processed variety of American cheese is sold in three basic packaging varieties: individually-wrapped cheese slices (which, technically, are not sliced off of a block of cheese, but rather slabs of processed cheese which are formed from a viscous processed cheese which only solidifies between the wrapping medium); small, pre-sliced blocks of 8 to 36 slices; and large blocks meant for use behind deli counters. The individually-wrapped cheese slices are, typically, the least like traditional cheese. Small blocks of pre-sliced (e.g., 8-36 slices), unwrapped American cheese are also marketed, often with the branding "deluxe" or "old-fashioned"; this variety of American cheese is similar in ingredients and texture to that of modern block American cheese. Before the advent of the individually-wrapped variety, this was the typical variety that Americans purchased. Hence, some people refer to this as "classic" or "traditional" American cheese.

See also

• List of cheeses
• List of dairy products
• Government cheese
• Kraft Singles
• Velveeta
• Cheez Whiz
• Easy Cheese

External links

• Making American cheese on the farm for home consumption, Farmers' Bulletin No. 1734, U.S. Department of Agriculture, October 1934. Hosted at University of North Texas Government Documents Department.
• An American-type cheese: how to make it for home use, Farmers' Bulletin No. 2075, U.S. Department of Agriculture, October 1954.