Whether it's tucked into a sandwich, slapped on a burger or layered with eggs, American cheese is iconic. It's salty and tangy, melty and addictively creamy.
Cheese snobs avoid the stuff, throwing it into the category of fake food. Understandable. But it turns out that most American cheese slices start out with many of the same ingredients as any other cheddar cheese — milk, salt and enzymes. In fact, to be called "American cheese," it must contain at least 51 percent cheese.
But what makes American cheese and American cheese products distinct from other cheeses is the process of combining the cheese with other ingredients — milk, whey, food starch, stabilizers — that turn cheddar into a more meltable, mild, shelf-stable version of itself.
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