# American cheese

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cheese/523548
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 3, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cheese/523548 "2010-01-03T22:15:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 42

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### Author: ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cheese/523548/42 "2024-05-07T17:52:14Z")

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> [@ExTank](#):
>
> You’ll _never_ convince some people that American cheese is real cheese.

Yeah, I am one.

Retro thread rebound! There is a current thread about “how to spot the American”, in which I got needlessly involved about my dislike of the so called “cheese”

> [@Spot the American!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-american/1001212/39):
>
> [American cheese - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cheese/523548)

Processed cheese just is not cheese, any more than mince is not steak. And at least with mince there are no extra ingredients being added, just the form factor changing.

American “cheese” is comparable to polony, which I think is called baloney in your part of the world. It is an industrial reclaimed meat product that strips what little meat there is from the bones of the slaughtered animal, pulverises it, mixing in various other ingredients, and then extruding it as a sausage for use on bread or, god forbid, occasionally fried.

I am willing to eat a number of things, many of which exceed “normal” expectations, but processed meat and processed cheese are a hard limit. I mean, yes, a [mopani worm](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonimbrasia_belina) or two. Yes, a whole roasted field mouse on a kebab. A lamb brain curry. Crocodile, warthog, durian (smelliest fruit ever).

But American cheese? It is just a plastic material that is yellow and melts at an appropriate temperature for a burger topping.

Can you imagine a white bread\* sandwich made with just polony/baloney and American cheese? I would have been expelled fron junior school if my mother had chosen to pack that combination in my lunchbox, the teachers would have heard swear words with which they were not familiar.

Thanks for reading my rant.

\* dont get me started on white bread! I bake. I bake white but I carefully choose my flour, and it is very different to the floppy tasteless stuff you get in a supermarket.

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