All too often, someone tells me they don’t like processed American cheese for a multitude of reasons, usually because “it’s not real cheese!” I’ve wasted days of my life conversing with people who think this is a worthwhile position to have. This post encapsulates all I want to say about the subject.
Processed American cheese is made from dairy, salt, and water. Those are the same basic ingredients used in every other process of making cheese. That’s right. All cheese is processed. The difference is not that American cheese is processed, but how it’s processed.
Where did this idea come from?
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has standard definitions for “pasteurized process American cheese” and “pasteurized process American cheese food.” The former must contain entirely traditional cheese, except for salt, dairy fat, emulsifiers, and colorants. The latter can contain a minimum of 51% traditional cheese, with the remainder being other dairy ingredients like cream or milk. Just as a reminder, traditional cheese is made from dairy too. And the yellow-orange pigmentation of American cheese is from annatto, the same ingredient that gives Cheddar its color.
Besides dairy ingredient ratios, the only “weird” part here is an emulsifier. But the emulsifier in processed cheese is in lots of other food and drinks, too. So, it’s not that weird.
Now, some cheese uses ingredients that are not in the FDA’s definition of what can be called either of these kinds of processed cheese. For example, Kraft Singles uses “milk protein concentrate.” It’s probably this that triggered a generation of people who would panic about American cheese not being “real” cheese. You can read about MPC all you want, but the juiciest thing you’ll find is that it’s not subject to a tariff quota like other dairy products are, which lets Kraft buy it from outside the US without paying too much in taxes.
Kraft not being able to label Kraft Singles as a “pasteurized process American cheese” doesn’t bother me. Nor does it bother me that the inclusion of MPC is what makes them unable to. It’s “cheese” in a colloquial way, and I think arguing otherwise is just semantics. Legal technicality semantics. Everyone’s favorite kind.
My tongue doesn’t care about such a legal technicality.
But more importantly, the extra milk and emulsifying salt is so the cheese melts nicely. When you melt Cheddar on its own, the fat, water, and protein separate. It’s not just unappealing visually, it also doesn’t have a smooth, creamy texture. You want cheese on a cheeseburger to melt evenly.
To do that, they add more milk and an emulsifying salt to a mix of real, traditional cheese to get a smoother, creamier cheese that melts evenly. Ta-da! It’s really not that weird.
It’s like trying to fight about what defines “chocolate” based solely on the ratio of milk to cocoa. Less milk gives you a stronger, more bitter flavor. More milk makes it smoother and creamier. They’re different, but both are chocolate.
American cheese is just perfect for burgers. It’s almost as if it was made for it! The higher milk content helps it melt and subdues the taste of the real cheeses in it, like Cheddar and Colby, to complement rather than overpower.
If you don’t want to listen to me because I’m not an expert, fine. I’m not an expert. But J. Kenji López-Alt is. If you want a more scientific and culinary explanation, he’s your guy.