It’s less the emulsifier softens it, more it allows water to the added. Cheese is largely fat/oil which doesn’t mix easily with water.
The emulsifier allows you to melt and cast left over cheese, and add water to increase it’s volume. Its original invention was to make use of scrap cuts of cheese.
Swiss is an abomination of a cheese that should never have been made. It’s hard, dry, flavorless and is terrible at melting. Not even just for burgers there’s no need at all for swiss cheese in general. P.S. modern Swiss uses sawdust to make the holes. Enjoy eating your sawdust.
You clearly haven’t had a burger with a good quality bun & patty grilled to medium rare with layers of cheddar, Colby, pepper jack and Swiss melted on top
Splitting, or breaking, is the separation of sauce, cheese, or other emulsion. As a milk product, cheese is a mixture of water, oil, and protein (and some sugars, fungus, coloring agents, details vary). Heat causes those elements to “split” and is the reason you can’t make a cheese sauce without some kind of emulsifier.
Premium American cheese, labeled “pasteurized process American cheese”, is mostly traditional cheese by weight (usually cheddar, often with Colby or others mixed in) with salt, color, emulsifier, citric acid, and up to 5% added dairy fat. That’s all the same stuff traditional cheese has except for the emulsifier (commonly sodium citrate or phosphate) which keeps it from separating as it melts.
Also all cheese is a “processed food” before anyone gets riled up about the terminology.
Then you need to try a few different brands of American cheese to find out that the most affordable options often use so much vegetable oil that it basically tastes like oil with some whey powder in it.
Yes there are good quality American cheese offerings, Land o Lakes and Boars Head both have an actual cultured American cheese.
But nearly all of the non-premium brands are frankly unpleasant.
Honestly not sure why people get so upset about American cheese. It’s just cheese with an emulsifier in it that softens it. Best burger cheese by far.
American cheese is the best cheese for a cheeseburger, because it melts without splitting.
It’s less the emulsifier softens it, more it allows water to the added. Cheese is largely fat/oil which doesn’t mix easily with water.
The emulsifier allows you to melt and cast left over cheese, and add water to increase it’s volume. Its original invention was to make use of scrap cuts of cheese.
How can you possibly say such nonsense when swiss and muenster both exist
Swiss is an abomination of a cheese that should never have been made. It’s hard, dry, flavorless and is terrible at melting. Not even just for burgers there’s no need at all for swiss cheese in general. P.S. modern Swiss uses sawdust to make the holes. Enjoy eating your sawdust.
Youre american. American cheese is barely cheese. Highly processed, plastic garbage.
You clearly haven’t had a burger with a good quality bun & patty grilled to medium rare with layers of cheddar, Colby, pepper jack and Swiss melted on top
None of those cheeses melt well, they split and leak oil. Sure they get soft and gooey but a bit of sodium citrate would make it better.
What do you mean by it “splitting?” How does real cheese not “melt well” exactly? And oily cheese? Where do you even get oily cheese?
Splitting, or breaking, is the separation of sauce, cheese, or other emulsion. As a milk product, cheese is a mixture of water, oil, and protein (and some sugars, fungus, coloring agents, details vary). Heat causes those elements to “split” and is the reason you can’t make a cheese sauce without some kind of emulsifier.
Premium American cheese, labeled “pasteurized process American cheese”, is mostly traditional cheese by weight (usually cheddar, often with Colby or others mixed in) with salt, color, emulsifier, citric acid, and up to 5% added dairy fat. That’s all the same stuff traditional cheese has except for the emulsifier (commonly sodium citrate or phosphate) which keeps it from separating as it melts.
Also all cheese is a “processed food” before anyone gets riled up about the terminology.
Then you need to try a few different brands of American cheese to find out that the most affordable options often use so much vegetable oil that it basically tastes like oil with some whey powder in it.
Yes there are good quality American cheese offerings, Land o Lakes and Boars Head both have an actual cultured American cheese.
But nearly all of the non-premium brands are frankly unpleasant.