I remember back when I was a kid, everyone ordered and referred to American cheese as Square Cheese. Nobody in those days said American cheese. When ordering square cheese, the person behind the counter in the deli, never looked puzzled or confused. I grew up in Philadelphia, and don’t know if this was a result of regional dialect… or if "square cheese’ was an across the nation phrase used during that era (1960’s through early 1970’s). Can any old timers with a relatively intact memory, remember the cheese from their childhood?
I lived in the Philly area in the 70s and don’t recall hearing the term ‘square cheese’. I don’t think it had widespread usage in the 70’s in that area, but there are plenty of local areas that might use the term, and I think people wouldn’t have too much trouble understanding what you meant either.
My memories start in the early 70s and it was always American cheese. I grew up in New Jersey closer to NYC than Philly.
How did you order a cheesesteak, if it wasn’t “American with”? “Square with” just doesn’t sound right.
Never heard of “square cheese.” Where I grew up American cheese was pretty much known as “cheese.”
I never heard of square cheese. It was always American. What has ebb and flowed is the popularity of white vs. yellow American (yellow is always on top but white seems to gain and lose in comparison).
Also when I was a kid American cheese was the main cheese you bought for sandwiches (if you just said “cheese” it would be American). Swiss was a far second and then there was everything else. Now American cheese makes people think of kid’s food and lots of other cheeses are popular on sandwiches.
When I was gwowing in Philly in the 40s and 50s we called it American and square cheese interchangeably. At its best it was a wonderful cheese. Here in Montreal, we call it (or a very similar cheese) mild white cheddar. And it’s not square. Or American.
I grew up in the Bronx in the 1950s and 1960s. I never heard of square cheese. There were really just four kinds of cheese: American, Swiss, Cream, and Cottage. (My father would sometimes threaten to buy Limburger as a joke.) Oh, and Mozzerella and Parmesan, but those were only in Italian restaurants.
It wasn’t until my late teens that I learned there were other kinds of cheese like Cheddar, Gouda, and Blue.
On Justin Wilson’s cajun cooking show, he called it “good old rat cheese” like you’d use to bait a trap.
Never heard the term before this thread. It was always “American” cheese. I grew up in Chicago and environs in the sixties and seventies.
Yeah, that’s what Canadians call it, too, at least in the Maritimes. On Canadian TV, commercials for Kraft call it “Kraft Canadian slices”. In case you ever wondered. Bruce Marsh did the commercials. He pronounced his name “Brew Smarsh”
Are you referring to real ‘American Cheese’ or stuff like Kraft Singles, which is a cheese product? Slight nitpick, but there is a difference.
In either case, never heard it called ‘square cheese.’
Right. Kraft Deli Deluxe is American cheese. Kraft Singles are a ‘cheese product’.
West Coaster, here. I’ve never heard it called ‘square cheese’.
I grew up 8 miles west of Philly City Hall, during the 60s and 70s, and this is the first I’ve ever heard of “square cheese”.
How would one distinguish this from other cheeses that are in the shape of a square?
I’ve never heard the term “square cheese,” but I’ve long been told that “american” cheese is more or less un-aged mild cheddar, with sodium citrate added to keep it smooth.
(note that when I say “american cheese” I’m not talking about that synthetic filth called “singles.”)
I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in western Massachusetts. Also never heard of “square cheese.” It was always American Cheese.
American cheese is a processed cheese product made from real cheese and other dairy products. It is regulated because it is not actually cheese. ‘Singles’ don’t even qualify in that category. Products like that can be similar to margarine, simply some milk solids mixed with oil.
I grew up in northern West Virginia in the late 60s and early 70s and it was always American Cheese. I’ve never heard it called square cheese.
American cheese was originally a type of Cheddar cheese made by British colonists when they came to America. When the cheese got exported back to England, it was called American Cheddar or Yankee Cheddar. In the U.S. it was often called Yellow Cheese. This eventually evolved into the processed cheese that we know as American Cheese today. I’ve heard the term Yellow Cheese applied to the less processed and more Cheddar-ish variety that you can find in delis and supermarkets.
I disagree. It is ‘pasteurised process cheese’, not ‘pasteurised process not-cheese’.
A ‘pasteurised process cheese food product’ contains less than 51% cheese.
You are correct. I was trying to say that it isn’t a a traditional cheese like cheddar. It must contain more than one type of cheese or dairy product. It is certainly more real than ‘singles’ and other ‘cheese products’.