Yeah, but is cheese that’s been left out for four years still safe to eat? How about a finely-aged zombie?
I take American cheese out of the fridge several hours before a barbecue. Room temp cheese melts faster on burgers.
I have accidentally left cheese on the counter overnight. I put it in the fridge the next morning and it’s fine.
People like “cheese product” because of its ability to easily melt. It’s made with real cheese, which is why they can call it “cheese product” instead of “cheez product”.
I like Velveeta for some recipes, but I admit I rarely buy it – it’s not particularly inexpensive, and it tends to get moldy before I can use it up. So next time I want some, I’m going to make it myself. The copycat recipes online call for grated cheddar cheese, water, powdered milk and gelatin. I’m pretty sure it’s the gelatin that makes it melt so readily.
Mmm, 64 slices of American cheeeese…
64…
63…
…
Sometimes it’s hard to find the actual American cheese in the supermarket because of the seemingly dozens of packaging options of “cheese food”. I personally prefer American cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches - Kraft Deli Deluxe. To find it I scan the shelf tags in the American cheese section of the dairy case looking for the highest price - that will be the real stuff.
My family refers to dairy-free cheese substitutes as “chiz.”
We call it ‘slap cheez’,
You know, slap it on your bread.
(It’s funny to me, anyway)
Oh, I guess I will have to discard that Roquefort.
You do have to distinguish cheese from cheese food. When I was growing up, the so-called American cheese was really a fine very mild cheddar with a wonderful taste. I can the same taste here in Montreal, but they call it mild yellow cheddar. I think it could be left out for days, even weeks, before it starts getting moldy. Even then I would just cut away the moldy parts and eat the rest.
Cheese in a block can be left out longer than slices - mold starts forming on the surface of a cheese like cheddar or American. Slices have more surface area than a block.
Back in the 1980’s, during a couple years of poverty, I ate a lot of “government cheese” (blocks of American). I would just cut away any mold that appeared after a couple weeks and keep on eating. Generally did take weeks of careless handling for mold to appear, most of the time it was gone before that happened.
My grocery stores have blocks of American cheese at the deli counter and they will slice it to order.