There are many foods that send a shudder up the spine of a food writer and educator. They tend to be truly inferior products, both nutritionally and taste-wise; but the American palate has become so accustomed to them that people have no desire to experience something better. At the top of our shudder list: processed American cheese.

Children are taught to love it from their first gooey grilled cheese sandwich. But most “American cheese” so processed and packed with additives that it falls outside the legal definition of cheese. It may be comfort food, but it’s not good food.

Real cheese is made from milk coagulated into curds, which are then pressed into cheese. Processed American cheese, on the other hand, is a blend of milk, milk fats, milk solids, other fats and whey protein concentrates—and only 51% cheese. It must be labeled “cheese product” or “cheese food.”

Most people who buy it don’t note the difference. But there is a far better option: Cheddar cheese slices. Here’s an eye-opening infographic that compares Cheddar to processed American cheese. But in one sentence:

America colonists brought their cheese-making skills to the New World and could make numerous types of cheese. But a single type won out: Cheddar. It was uniquely sturdy under primitive conditions and withstood seasonal variations in temperature and humidity, while delivering excellent flavor.

The first cheese factory, enabling large-scale production, was built in 1851. When cheese is cut it in to blocks, there are leftover cheese trimmings.

By the mid-1800s, an Ohio cheese maker named Emil Frey figured out how to heat his cheese scraps and add a few other ingredients to create processed cheese. This new cheese was more bland than Cheddar, which appealed to the [de-evolving] American palate. It turned velvety-smooth when melted, and became known as Velveeta.

A double burger with American cheese. Photo
by Paul Johnson | IST.

While some sources give credit for processed American cheese to James L. Kraft, who shredded and re-pasteurized Cheddar trimmings with sodium phosphate and patented “American process cheese” in 1916, he was not the first to create processed cheese. Others did it decades earlier.

According to Chuck Blumer, who produces Spring Lake American Cheese another cheese maker other than Emil Frey decided to put the trimmings to good use by making a blended cheese.

He threw all of his trimmings into the cooker, added some barrel Cheddar for consistency and sliceability, added some moisture (water) for meltability, and invented American cheese. All cheese makers followed suit, thrilled to turn their trimmings into profits.

In 1885, Colby cheese was invented in Wisconsin by Joseph F. Steinwand, named for the township in which his father had built a cheese factory three years earlier. It is similar to Cheddar, but with some key differences in production. And like Cheddar, it was a hit.

American cheese became a mix of Colby and Cheddar cheese scraps. With the surge in popularity of convenience foods in the 1950s, processed American cheese took off. The Baby Boomer generation grew up eating American cheese sandwiches: with lettuce and tomato, cold cuts or grilled with or without a slice of tomato.

Says Blumer: American cheese became so popular that there were not enough trimmings to satisfy the demand. Cheese makers then shopped the world for any type of cheese they could buy at a cheap price. They would throw this cheap cheese in to the cooker with some cheddar and water to make their American Cheese. Most cheese makers still do this today.

So, American cheese evolved from being quality trimmings of Cheddar and Colby to any cheap cheese that can be processed into a uniform flavor.

THE REBORN AMERICAN CHEESE

There’s hope for everyone who adds a slice of American cheese to a burger, sandwich or omelet.

With Americans’ demands for more wholesome food, domestic Cheddar manufacturers have been making “American cheese” slices from 100% domestic barrel Cheddar.* And if you are making American cheese in Wisconsin, America’s largest cheese-producing state, you are required by law to use only 100% domestic barrel Cheddar in the production of American cheese.

Look for Cheddar slices from Organic Valley, Tillamook and other quality Cheddar producers.

Check out this infographic for the story of what you’re getting today when you buy Cheddar versus American Cheese.

Find more of our favorite cheeses and recipes.
 
*Barrel cheddar, or Cheddar barrel cheese, is a 500 pound barrels of cheese sold by cheese producers in to other manufacturers.

If only he would carry Wine Wipes. Unfortunately, the product packaging, with its image of female lips, is not exactly unisex. But either sex can use Wine Wipes discretely. The container can hide in the palm of your hand, and there’s a mirror on the inside of the lid.

Years ago, when we went through an intensive Port-drinking phase and ended up with embarrassing “tannin teeth,” we asked our dentist, who was near retirement, what we could do to eliminate the stains. “If I were in an earlier phase of my career,” he said, “I’d love to do the research. But I’m winding down.”

He did recommend drinking less tannic red wines. But when you’re in a Port mode, nothing else suffices. We ended up carrying a toothbrush and baking soda, and making trips to the restroom to clean our Bride of Frankenstein teeth.

Ten years later, we discovered Wine Wipes, a boon for people whose teeth stain more than they’d like. It’s easy to wipe away the unattractive dark red film on your teeth: Just run the cloth over your teeth, tongue and mouth, and they’ll be restored to normal.

The all-natural ingredients won’t otherwise interfere with the taste of the wine:

 
A small compact with 20 wipes has an SRP of $6.95.* You can get three for $14.99 on Amazon.

Wine Wipes make great gifts for pals whose teeth tend to develop “wine tatoos,” and are fun stocking stuffers.

Buy Wine Wipes on Amazon.com.
 
 
*SRP = Suggested Retail Price, also called MSRP, Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.

Mix it up: a green salad with crudites, figs
and nuts. Photo courtesy La Tourangelle.

Why is it that we normally toss the carrots, tomatoes and radishes into a green salad, but not the rest of the crudités?

We amended that posthaste, and enjoyed a delicious “crudité salad”: a salad with more variety, more nutrition, more crunch. And we avoided a supply of withering raw vegetables. We also added nuts for protein, ripe figs and a walnut oil and white wine vinaigrette.

For those who don’t have enough time in the day to eat their veggie quota, it’s also a two-fer (or perhaps, a three-fer).

Find more of our favorite salad recipes.

The highest Michelin rating, three stars, means “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” It gives a restaurant and its chef world prominence, as foodies around the globe trek long distances to experience the cuisine.

To those who have followed the stars over the years, one insight provided by Mr. Naret is that now, the ratings are all about the food. In prior years, a restaurant had to be beautifully appointed in order to get the coveted third star. Today, the focus is “what’s on the plate.” Ishikawa in Tokyo is as plain as any traditionally-designed sushi restaurant, and Noma in Copenhagen—rated the world’s best restaurant by Restaurant magazine†—looks like a café in Vermont.

The 10 chefs featured in “Three Stars” include:

 
The work of German filmmaker Lutz Hachmeister (the original title is “Drei Sterne—Die Köche und die Sterne, “Three Stars—The Cook and the Stars”), the film is 94 minutes well spent for lovers of haute cuisine. It’s a rare trip behind the scenes, and the opportunity to spend face time—at least on film—with the great chefs.

There are some quirks. We found the extensive cross-cutting, jumping from topic to topic, to be distracting (we’d like to add some title cards). But truly disappointing is that there’s only about a minute of screen time given to showing the food!

The director focuses on searches for the finest ingredients, kitchen preparation and some dining room scenes, along with the chefs as talking heads.

Strangely, when the director has the opportunity to focus on the beautiful plates of food that result from their chefs’ philosophies and labors, he quickly shifts focus—in two disappointing instances, spending time on the face of the pretty server, while the plates of food she serves get short shrift (or no shrift). It’s a real flaw in the film, and makes us wonder why Herr Hachmeister chose to spend his time documenting three-star chefs.

So, while the film doesn’t merit three stars, it’s still a tasty treat for all who love exquisite cuisine and want to know more about those who produce it.

See our list of food films.

*The 2012 edition of the Guide Michelin features 109 three-stars, up from 96 in 2012.

†The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is a list produced by the British magazine Restaurant. The voters include consumer gourmets, international chefs, restaurant critics and restaurateurs.
  

A tomato salad feast. Photo courtesy
chef Mauro Colagreco.

We splurge on $4/pound heirloom tomatoes (that’s the New York City price—don’t let it scare you if you live elsewhere), which are available at our farmers market in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes.

We buy Aunt Rubys, Black Russians, Brandywines, Cherokee Purples, German Stripes, Green Zebras, and our favorite name tomatoes, Mortgage Lifters, which were bred in the 1930s by a West Virginia farmer who needed cash to pay off his mortgage.

Don’t be put off by cracked skin at the stem end: The tomato is still delicious. You can peel the skin or slice off the end. When this “fault” of numerous tomato varieties was bred out to create perfect-looking tomatoes, much flavor was bred out with it. Tomatoes should be a flavor competition, not a search for perfect skin.

This is a wonderful first course. When you purchase the tomatoes, make sure that you have one tomato at least three inches in diameter that can be cut into four slices, a half-inch or thicker, to serve as a base for the other ingredients. Serves four.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HERBS. Make a paste of herbs: In a mortar and pestle or food processor, grind/pulse herbs to a paste. Add a small amount of olive oil and a pinch of salt to season. If you make more than 1/4 cup, the leftover paste will keep in the fridge for several days. You can use it as a garnish with just about anything, including as a sandwich spread, in potato salad, mixed into rice, scrambled eggs and other everyday dishes.

2. BALSAMIC. Prepare the balsamic reduction. You can substitute a purchased balsamic glaze.

3. TOMATOES. Slice the “base” tomato into four slices. Cut the other tomatoes into the size of halved cherry tomatoes or large dice. Some tomatoes may need to be seeded before cutting into small pieces. Add a pinch of salt and the fresh thyme to the cut tomatoes and arrange atop the base, leaving a space in the center for the greens.

4. SALAD. Lightly dress with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. There is no vinegar because the great flavor of heirloom tomatoes should shine through, and the salad can be dipped into the balsamic reduction. However, if you are using tomatoes that need a kick of flavor, or don’t want to make the balsamic reduction, you can substitute a balsamic vinaigrette.

5. FINISH. Using squeeze bottles or medicine droppers, surround the tomato base with an artistic array of herb and balsamic droplets (see photo above). Serve and celebrate the glory of tomatoes.

An heirloom tomato is a non-hybrid (open-pollinated) tomato cultivar (variety). It has the deep, lush flavor that tomatoes were meant to have, before they were bred (hybridized) to have perfect shapes, bright red colors, disease-resistance while growing and shipping and long shelf life, among other qualities.

Even if you eat freshly-picked, vine-ripened tomatoes lovingly grown from seedlings in your own garden—far superior in flavor to store-bought tomatoes that have traveled a distance—the flavor is just a fraction of a tomato grown from heirloom seeds.

The period following World War II marks the beginning of industrial agriculture, with a focus on breeding produce and livestock for commercial convenience. Flavor was victim to economics in the commercial seed business.

For small farmers who fought to maintain quality, heirloom seeds have been nurtured and handed down through the generations, going back 100 years and longer.
 
Find more salad recipes in our Vegetables Section.