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.
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.
Grilled cheese - American cheese is the only way i enjoy a grilled cheese. Also, Black Forest ham and American cheese sandwich with lettuce tomato and mayo on a baguette or other real tasting bread.
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.
Assuming this refers to essentially processed cheese like kraft singles.
9/10 times a different cheese will taste much better and texturally if you’re using a good melting point cheese for the use case better there as well.
That said, this style of cheese excels and is really only tolerable in HOT food. It needs to be melted. Its nasty pre-melt and its nasty post-melt. But while melted, it’s good.
A grilled cheese with real and stringy cheeses is great. But sometimes a grilled cheese with 2 kraft singles is what you crave.
Bonus points if it’s white American from the deli. The way it becomes not quite solid, not quite liquid, makes it perfection on a solid smash patty. Don’t forget to toast them buns, hon.
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.
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