Velveeta for grilled cheese sandwiches is THE BEST. It’s melty and flavorful. A grilled cheese made with any other cheese tastes like cardboard to me.
Velveeta is actually specifically designed to melt well. And yes, it is real cheese. It’s a blend of real cheeses that are melted together and re-solidified.
Easy Cheese, the aerosol spray-on cheese product (often incorrectly called Cheez Wiz, a different “food” product), but only in a very specific setting: I like Easy Cheese on a hotdog with the works, the kind of hotdog you eat when your wife is at her parents and you come in from a long hike with the dog and eat with a beer while watching the baseball game instead of mowing the lawn.
Yup. I like all cheese. But sometimes it calls for American.
This is actually a fully different thing I guess, but ‘Mexican’ lasagna. - Layer uncooked noodles with cooked ground beef and refried bean mixture, pour mixture of picante sauce and water over it, cover it with shredded Mexican cheese mix, sour cream, black olives and chives/green onion. Bake.
Ugh. All of these substitutions sound disgusting to me.
My mom, trying to save money when we were kids, resorted to mashed potato flakes. My brother (probably 7 or 8 at the time) took a bite and said he was going to throw up if he ate anymore. My mom insisted he eat his whole portion. Well, he did. But he immediately ran to the bathroom and barfed it all up. Instant mashed potatoes have a reputation in our house. Personally, I hate them.
I use potato flakes for one purpose only: as an ingredient in homemade bread. Back in the days when I was making bread for the whole family on a regular basis, I used to prepare a dozen or so packets containing a few teaspoons/tablespoons each of salt, sugar, soy flour, wheat germ, powdered milk, potato flakes, ground flax, and nutritional yeast. When it wuas time to make bread, all I had to do was throw a packet, some white flour, some whole wheat flour, yeast and water into the bread machine, and voila, I’d have a reasonably nutritious bread in no time.
The potato flakes are actually quite nice for bread - they add a good texture/taste, and help the yeast to rise.
the version ive seen is you use a taco seasoning packet (ie mccormicks lawrys ect ) and cook the meat like ya would for tacos then ya use mexican cheeses for the rest
it was actually a recipie handed out our in our hispanic chain store’s “welcome bag” on grand opening day
Whenever I’ve seen “Mexican lasagna”, it’s had tortillas of some sort (usually crunchy) in place of the noodles. I’m under no illusions as to its authenticity, but it’s tasty.
There are a few Hamburger Helper varieties that I prefer to the real thing. Notably stroganoff/beef pasta and lasagna because I hate mushrooms and ricotta cheese, respectively.
I’m reminded of how Alton Brown prefers imitation cinnamon (i.e. cassia) to real cinnamon.
Dunno if this counts but I like monkey bread that uses canned biscuit or canned cinnamon roll dough over making your own dough. I’ve made monkey bread for myself on occasion and even the richest homemade dough doesn’t taste 100% right. But hommade cinnamon rolls using a cream cheese dough (way more tender) and thick coatings of cream cheese frosting beat Cinnabon, which I thought was the very best for a decade.
I agree. I’ve read this thread with fascination. There is not a single thing listed that I’ve eaten, (possibly American cheese on fast food burger 30+ yrs ago?) or would ever be tempted to.
(I feel like there could be a legitimate tie in to the ‘Why is America so fat?’ thread, maybe.)
Maybe from all the poutine and sticky toffee pudding we eat?
Correct. Pepperoni is a type of sausage. I looked up Celeste pepperoni pizza, and it turns out they do things a little different, as they portion their pepperoni into little balls on their pizza instead of cutting it in slices like most people do, but the ingredients of the pepperoni are still like a basic (though cheap) pepperoni, down to the lactic acid starting culture and curing salts. It’s just that instead of being sliced, they’re thrown down in chunks. It’s a bit similar to how when you order sausage on pizza in New York, you get it in slices, but everywhere else (it seems) it’s in chunks.
Artificial fruit flavors are really strange. To me, artificial cherry and grape don’t really taste like cherries or grapes, but they still taste great. On the other hand, artificial peach and strawberry do taste like peaches and strawberries. but in an awful way.
I guess it’s just individual preferences.
This happens a lot. Folks who’ve been raised on ‘thicker, richer’ not-maple syrup find the real thing too thin and a little astringent. Furthermore, people often buy Grade A - light amber thinking it was a higher grade when Grade A - dark amber will give you a stronger maple hit. Sometimes I even get Grade B for even more mapley goodness but you have to use it sparingly on pancakes.
I agree with you about the kidney beans which is why I never, ever make chili with them. I’m sorry you don’t have cooks who disagree.
For me, it’s mint. I make my juleps with mint extract instead of properly muddling the leaves.
Yes, I agree, unless it is baked and the cheese gets browned. Homemade can be bad or great or anything in between. With Kraft you know what you are getting. I add shredded cheese, myself.
Yeah. Totinos Party Pizza is pretty much “imitation” pizza but I like them.
Artificial cherry flavoring doesn’t actually taste like real cherries, because it’s actually artificial pomegranate flavoring. See, the “cherry” flavor they’re mimicking is maraschino cherries, which are cherries soaked in grenadine syrup, which is made from pomegranate juice.
You’ve never had a California Roll at a sushi restaurant?
Interesting! I had no idea. That explains why I once tried an artificially flavored cherry drink and it tastes like a naturally flavored pomegranate drink. I thought they were so similar despite having had real cherry juice before as well as fresh pomegranate juice. I figured it had something to do with cooking the juice.
Also, I may sound vile, but I like maraschino cherries. I usually buy the Tillen stuff from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s if they’ve got them in stock. Ice cream, oatmeal, pudding, etc. Always good with those. I keep Luxardos on hand for drinks.