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Technically Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler invented the first processed cheese in Switzerland in 1911 by heating cheese up and mixing in sodium citrate. Kraft patented the process in the USA in 1916. The term “American Cheese” was later coined to refer to any processed cheese.
The American Cheese Wikipedia page is poorly written with mostly redundant information from other Wikipedia pages… it’s just a commonly used word to refer to processed cheese and marketing term.
There’s so much inaccurate in this, I don’t even know where to start. I’ll try and find the comment I made the last time this all came up, and either link or copy it here, but it was months ago, so I have no clue if I’ll find it.
The short version is that “American cheese” is cheese, just processed with an emulsifier to make it more stable and melt easier.
The process wasn’t german in origin, it was swiss, and even that isn’t fully accurate since the process used to make the original processed cheese in the US was slightly different.
And, if you read your packages in the US, where the terminology on packaging is legally defined and limited for cheese, you can tell whether or not it has any cheese in it by the terms used.
That’s the short version, and unless I find my previous mini essay, that’s all the work I’m willing to do this time around, but all of this is verifiable online if anyone wants to write up their own essay on the subject
Edit: holy shit, I actually found it quick! https://sh.itjust.works/comment/8390398
It’s full of emulsifiers and nearly flavorless so it can also make sauces super creamy
You can add sodium citrate and milk to just about any cheese to make it melt smoother if you want. Skip adding American entirely.
