It's excellent for making mac n cheese. It contains enough emulsifiers for far more cheese than just that slice, so you can add what cheese you actually want and still have it be silky smooth.
American cheese is just normal, cheddar style cheese but with the addition of some sodium citrate.
Sodium citrate is a fun little food chemical that give the cheese a slight citrus bite, but more importantly acts as an emulsifier. It keeps the oil and water inside the cheese bonded together. This means the cheese melts and then never becomes greasy.
You can abuse this. You can make a super creamy cheese sauce for a higher brow mac and cheese by using some shredded cheese, a couple slices of American, and a few splashes of the pasta water.
Obviously you do you, but man I make a mean smash burger at home with deli-style American and an exceptionally simple seasoning of 4 parts salt, 1 part pepper.
Don’t get me wrong, bleu cheese on a burger is a solid choice. But I don’t really like cheddar on burgers nearly as much. Doesn’t melt the right way.
Good to know. We don't have deli-style American in my country as far as I know, so I don't know what that tastes like. It's all just individually wrapped slices, Laughing Cow etc, mostly for kids lunches.
I kind of know what you mean about the melt quality though. I'm a kiwi so I always have a ton of cheddar available, but for a really good burger it's nice to have something softer like brie or blue.
My family has a recipe that uses it to make the sauce creamy and delicious as others have mentioned. It's super quick and easy to make since it's mostly canned foods. It may not be gourmet, but it is definitely comfort food in a pinch. It's called Tallarine.
1lb ground beef
1/2 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic... or more
1 can stewed italian tomatoes (sometimes I add a can of spicy peppers like jalapeño to be more like a Mexican dish)
1 small can of sliced mushrooms (I usually leave these out)
1 can whole kernel sweet corn
1 small can sliced black olives
1-2c uncooked egg noodles depending on how noodly you like to get
4 slices American Cheese
Brown the beef with onion and garlic. I usually throw in some salt and pepper here. Add all other ingredients except the cheese. Add some water of it's too dry. Cover and cook until the noodles are tp your preference. Add the cheese and stir until melted and mixed.
Haters gonna hate American Cheese "Product", but it can sure make some tasty dishes.
Processed cheese is not cheese. It’s rubber that won’t hold air. It’s cheese product. The only acceptable use for processed cheese slices is throwing at your little brother. I wouldn’t even feed those to a dog.
You know, I had Mozzerella that tasted strongly of soap before. I looked it up and apparently some chesses can start to do that after some variable amount of time due to some sort of chemical process. It would be worth checking if that cheese was supposed to taste like soap, or if it was going through the same issue I experienced.
If you’re wondering, yes I still ate it, like hell am I going to waste mozz that I paid for
Kraft’s Deli-style is pretty good, too (comes in a pre-sliced block, like what restaurants use for burgers). Just don’t get the Kraft singles, which aren’t nearly as good in flavor or consistency.
American cheese is great when you want a cheese that melts, but doesn’t become liquid. It’s great for burgers, grilled cheese, Mac and cheese, and dips.
Philly cheese steak pizza. I know it sounds like an abomination but if you put the real white American cheese underneath the mozzarella it works as sort of a cheese sauce. Greath with onions peppers and steak on top.
American cheese is not a flavor. American cheese is a blend of cheese, fat, and emulsifying agents. if there's cheddar in the blend, it'll taste mostly like cheddar, but less of it because it's only, like, half cheddar.
The important part of the American cheese, in figuring out how to use it, is the emulsifiers.
My preferred use case is using a slice of American cheese in mac and cheese, alongside some other cheese (I love Gouda) for flavor. Or like four other cheeses, whatever. Sometimes I mix in a tiny bit of cream cheese or mascarpone or a little milk, which gets emulsified into a sauce thanks to the American cheese, and makes the whole situation creamier. And then I season the whole situation well, especially if I added that last ingredient, to bring out the flavor of the cheeses.
Now, that's not a real, advanced mac and cheese. I could be making a mornay or something. But I'm lazy and I don't really keep butter in the house. So I cheat. Pro chefs might also use other emulsifying agents to control the flavor and chemistry better, rather than just chucking in a slice of some american blend.
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