American_cheese

For information on processed cheese in general, see processed cheese.

This article refers specifically to one type of cheese. For other cheeses of the United States, see List of American cheeses.

American cheese is a common processed cheese marketed by Kraft Foods, Borden, and other companies primarily in the United States. It is orange, yellow, or white in color and mild in flavor, with a medium-firm consistency, and melts easily. It has traditionally been made from a blend of cheeses, most often Colby and Cheddar. Today\'s American cheese is generally no longer made from a blend of all-natural cheeses, but instead is a processed cheese (i.e. it is manufactured from a set of ingredients Kraft Singles (Orange) Ingredients List. such as milk, whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, salt) which meets the legal definition of cheese.

The common use of the marketing label "American Cheese" for "processed cheese" combined with the prevalence of processed cheese in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world has led to the term American cheese being used in the United States synonymously in place of processed cheese. Moreover, the term "American cheese" has a legal definition as a type of pasteurized process cheese under the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. The legal definition is discussed in the article on processed cheese.

American Cheese has long been a mainstay in popular American cuisine, most notably on cheeseburgers, in grilled cheese sandwiches, and in ham and cheese sandwiches.

History and usage of the term American Cheese

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

In these early references, "American cheese" is used to distinguish it from European cheese. An 1878 newspaper article in The New York Times lists the total export of American cheese at 355 million pounds per year, with an expected growth to 1,420 million pounds "The Cheese all inspected", The New York Times: 5, Dec 8, 1878.. Another article from 1878 mentions that the high quality American cheese is usually re-labelled under European names after export, with only low grade cheese retaining American labelling in Europe "Lesson of a bit of cheese", The New York Times: 8, Dec 9, 1878. "There are other important lessons which the fair closed on Saturday will suggest to the practical men. One of them is that the best grades of American cheese should enter the foreign market and our own with an American label, not as spurious Roquefort, Stilton, Swiss, &c. As it is, for the most part, only certain inferior grades of American manufacture enter the foreign market as American, to the great detriment of our reputation for fine production, though, possibly, to the present profit of middlemen and commission houses.". It also states that even in the United States quality American cheese is often relabelled as Swiss, etc, and that this situation is a detriment to the reputation of American cheesemakers. This practice may be in part responsible for the name "American cheese" being synonymous with bland, low quality cheese "Fair Cheese", The New York Times: 2, Dec 7, 1878. This is the first of several articles covering the dairy fair held in New York City in 1878. "He remembered well how flavorless were the first consignments of American cheese that entered the European market...However all that was over now, and the products of American dairy men vied with those of Europe in flavor and delicacy.".

See also

• Processed cheese
• Cheddar cheese
• List of cheeses
• Pasteurization
• Government cheese

Softer versions of American/Process cheese

• Velveeta
• Cheez Whiz
• Easy Cheese

References

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. Hosted at University of North Texas Government Documents Department.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia