welcome friends welcome back to the
kitchen today we're going to make
something goes by a bunch of different
names it can be called American cheese
American processed cheese sometimes it's
just called processed cheese it is an
invention that goes back to the early
1900s
JL Kraft of Kraft Foods was a Canadian
who moved to the United States to
Chicago in order to sell cheese and
while he was there he was trying to
figure out how to make more money
selling cheese and he came up with this
idea which he eventually patented in
1916 of mixing cheese off cuts of cheese
like the cheddar cheese that would have
ended up in the garbage because it was
unsalable in the regular marketplace he
figured out how to take that REE
pasteurize it add sodium phosphate to
the mixture to come up with something
that melted really nicely and was silky
smooth had a flavor that Americans liked
and he could make a lot of money with so
he patented the process in 1916 and then
started his branding campaign calling it
American cheese and everybody knows who
Kraft Foods is today so we're gonna do
essentially a modern take on his
original recipe so in this pan I put
some butter and I'm going to add some
milk and we're just gonna gently heat
this to melt the two together while
that's happening we're going to shred
some cheese so this is cheddar cheese
this is mild supermarket cheddar cheese
you don't want to use a really expensive
aged cheddar cheese you know the kind
that is almost crumbly and has
incredible flavor it doesn't work well
in this in this scenario cheddar cheese
Colby cheese sorry Colby cheese
Wisconsin brick mmm pepper jack or
Monterey Jack all of those cheeses work
really well and so the idea of doing
this at home really is that you can take
your favorite cheese and make something
that melts really well for cheese
burgers mac and cheese queso
which is what I'm doing today so we'll
shred this cheese and the shredding the
shredding doesn't have to be pretty you
just need to break it up the whole idea
initially was to use off cuts and stuff
that they couldn't sell so just kind of
breaking it up is all you really need to
do now the magic the magic comes from
emulsifying salts he originally used
sodium phosphate and that is just a salt
sodium with a phosphate added and it is
an emulsifier which keeps the milk fat
from separating from the milk solids in
the cheese which makes it melt here
which makes it better at melting today
I'm going to use sodium citrate and
sodium hexametaphosphate this is the
sodium citrate I'm going to put that in
with the milk and the butter absolutely
have to use this in order to make this
work the sodium hexametaphosphate I'm
using just a tiny little bit you don't
actually need this it makes it better
but if you don't want to buy a big bag
of sodium hexametaphosphate you don't
have to you can just leave it out I kind
of like having it in there let's get it
in there
now people are going to say I don't want
chemicals in my food to that I reply
everything you eat is chemical
everything you eat is a chemical water
is a chemical salt is a chemical these
are just two salts yes they're chemicals
but there's something that you eat all
the time anyway
you've probably had them four or five
times already today without knowing it
it's just in all of our food and all
food is a chemical if you don't want to
buy a big bag of sodium citrate you can
make it at home it's really easy you
take baking soda you mix it with citric
acid you add a little water in order to
start the chemical process happening and
then you dry it out and you grind it up
and you've got sodium citrate it really
is that easy so the idea is we want to
get this to a temperature of about 150
degrees Fahrenheit and then we mix in
and melt in the shredded cheese a little
bit at a time don't put in too much
don't overwhelm the mixture stir it
until it's completely melted and I know
there are people out there right now
saying oh I'll take a shortcut and I'll
buy the pre-shredded cheese at the
grocery store
don't pre-shredded cheese has additives
they're not bad for you but it has
additives to keep the cheese from
clumping together in the bag so that it
stays little shreds that affects this
process and it doesn't work out quite as
well so you need to start with a block
of cheese and shred it yourself not that
it's a big deal when you've got a food
processor okay a little bit more just
don't let it come to a boil don't let
your heap get that high and if you feel
like it's not mixing in well enough and
you want to use a whisk go ahead and use
a whisk just help it along
there we go comes together really nicely
and a little bit more cheese okay so
I've got a really nice mixture of cheese
here now I've got three molds set out
choose your mold wisely I'm using what
was available to me today I've seen
people use yogurt containers but just
definitely want to use something that is
plastic that's flexible that you can
push it out of the mold
you could use little tin foil containers
if you wanted to this point you need to
move fairly quickly and pour it into the
mold before it starts to Reese elyda fie
hey Jules hey friends that's really
orange and not really orange processed
cheese food
American cheese so I've got to I've got
this one I'm gonna try and slice to put
on hamburgers and this one is a little
bit looser play with the the acids a
little bit it's a little bit looser for
making queso or some of the best
macaroni and cheese you've ever had
right I guess I'm still I'm still illest
outed by the idea that you take your
good cheese perfectly decent cheese and
okay I get it
it's experimenting this is what we do we
experiment here it is so this is the
wrong way to cut this if you're gonna
cut this you need to cut it with wire we
don't have one which I don't have
oddly enough all the things we have and
that's not one of them so that's not too
bad so there you go a round of American
processed cheese look at that crazy so
this is gonna be great on burgers it is
cuz it's gonna it's gonna melt just give
me a really good piece mm-hmm yeah it
looks like processed cheese feels got
that feel got that rubbery Kenickie feel
about that texture that's a Kraft cheese
slice it's been so long since I've had
one I almost feel like it's easier it is
cheesier I got at the end there the end
I got a like a taste of actual cheese
that you don't get with a cheese Kraft
cheese slice which is the reason you
would make this at home so it melts well
and it has a little bit better flavor
lumen have a little bit better place
nothing said I you know I went through a
period in my life where this was the
best she's ever and I wouldn't eat any
other cheese there's like no is the only
cheese my dad would ever buy I would ask
why can't we have real cheese like other
people and he's like this is real cheese
drove me nuts yeah where's my mom was
like no you don't want that I'm like no
I want that okay I'm gonna have no I'm
sure every family has the same thing
people who love it
hate it yeah um it's you know it's not
awful it's just not what I'm used to it
serves a purpose it's great for all of
the things that you use it for um you
know like I need to make it myself
it makes a great grilled cheese cuz it's
a it it melts really well and it it
pulls apart this is a grilled cheese
cheese I know you've even had your
second piece now huh so it can't be that
awful no it's not it's not awful at all
it's absolutely fantastic I really like
it put a big smile on my face so you're
gonna see this show up on cheese burgers
I'm gonna see this shop with
chorizo in some queso dip it's gonna be
hanging around for a while so thanks for
stopping by
stay safe see you again soon I'm gonna
have another piece
you