table talk / By Joseph Byrd

In Defense of American Cheese

(April 29, 2010)  A couple of years ago, in a column called “Secret Ingredients,” I wrote of the crowning touch to my baked macaroni and cheese, revealed to me by Gus, chef of the late Crest House in Culver City:

After it has baked, before heating and serving, over the top of the casserole you place slices of American cheese. Yep, that’s what I said. No, not cheddar, just plain American. Another secret ingredient. It gives the top the perfect oozy texture.

GALLERY >

American cheese! That plastic-like substance that everyone knows is fake cheese made from milk and chemicals? I was surprised. The macaroni already had a wonderful cheese sauce, but a topping of Velveeta?

I should have been horrified. I hadn’t had American cheese in my home fridge for a decade — my cheeseburgers were made with aged cheddar. But Gus was a master chef. I would be a fool not to learn from him.

It turned out I had a lot to learn, and American cheese is now a valued ingredient in my kitchen. While it doesn’t replace “real” cheese, its unique properties and versatility are critical to many dishes.

American cheese is the cheap, machine-made stuff that comes pre-sliced and drapes neatly over the palm of your hand in a perfect square — a kind of cheese that is, truth be told, only partly real cheese. A “processed cheese,” virtually unknown outside our borders, the most common form is a blend of milk, milk fats and solids, cheese culture, and something called “whey protein concentrates.” In its Kraft form, it is called a “pasteurized prepared cheese product.” It’s historically a legacy of WWII, when it was a creative way of recycling industrial dairy waste into extrudable blocks of stuff that would melt without separating, and have a long shelf life. Enzymes account for most of the flavor. The preservatives, as such things go, are pretty harmless.

I realize that there are kinds of American cheese that are combinations of cheddar, Colby and other cheese, but Wikipedia and I agree that the most common definition of the term is a processed cheese product. In the interest of forestalling endless arguments, a list of FDA definitions can be found online. 

American cheese’s continued popularity may not be as much based on its mild taste as much as its texture. It holds together very well and melts into a gooey sheet that is perfect for burgers and other heated sandwiches. The taste? Well, since when have Americans cared how cheese tastes? (The best-tasting cheeses are made from unpasteurized milk, which represents about 0.5 percent of domestic cheese.) But it’s actually not bad, a slightly tangy, salty flavor, like an unripe Brie.

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