What exactly is Velveeta?

[Paragon]

Cheese? Blend of cheeses? Cheese substitute?

Please educate me.

[everythingsxen]

1. Recycled toxic waste

[radwriter0555]

30. truthfuly, it's the crap they scrape up off the floor from other cheese

making processes. Add some fillers, goo-ers and binders, and viola!

Fake cheese goo.

[MisterP]

2. petroleum-based cheddar

is my best guess

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. Cheese terror

:puke:

[philosophie_en_rose]

4. Ear wax?

Snot?

[kixot]

5. Processed cheese food.

It's what you feed to cheese.

Dog food.
Cat food.
Cheese food.

Makes sense.

[achtung_circus]

34. Process cheese food PRODUCT

n/t

[Champion Jack]

6. Soylent Orange

[randr]

7. It is actually Anti-Spam-the kind you eat

Which is why they go so good together. They cancel out each others harmful effects.

[mgc1961]

8. It's a Reagan joke on the poor.

[BiggJawn]

23. No, Ray-Gun's cheese was actually good stuff!

I got enough of it. 5# blocks of very good Cheddar. Yum!

Velveeta is ?????? "Cheese FOOD"???

I didn't know cheese got hungry...

[oneighty]

9. Soft yellow plastic!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

180

[cryfordawn]

10. It is cousin to

Spam and cheeze whiz.

hehehe

[woofless]

16. I've always wondered

how much whiz is in cheez whiz? I don't even want to know about cheezits.....yuck.

[cryfordawn]

18. Yeah.

Name really isn't very appealing is it. Kids love it though so it has to be bad.

[Ilsa]

11. Okay, time to get gross:

uterine lining concentrate.

There. That ought to fix any desire anyone has for the stuff for awhile.

[GOPisEvil]

12. From the Velveeta FAQ:

Why is VELVEETA® shelf stable?

VELVEETA® contains a blend of natural cheeses and other wholesome ingredients that are cooked as the product is made. This cooking process allows VELVEETA® to be shelf stable for several months. VELVEETA® is also formulated within the parameters of the Food Research Institute guidelines for shelf stable cheese products. After opening, it should be stored in the refrigerator.

http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?m=contact_us/contact_us&cat1=103&cat2=105&cat3=81

[mgc1961]

13. Product.

Shelf life. Formulated parameters.

Nuclear weapon or Alan Greenspan testimony? You tell me.

[SmileyBoy]

14. It's gooooood shit.

Damn the nutritionists, I want some proccessed cheez, dammit!!!

[MadAsHell]

15. IF you really want to know ...

It is mostly a chedder style cheese with extra oils, some MSG's, and few other minor ingredients. It is almost the exact same cheese as American slices.

[mouse7]

25. a LOT of MSG

I figured out how to detect the taste of MSG. It's hard to describe, but try to remember the aftertaste of soy sauce and compare it to cheese and tomato sauce. The similarity is the "taste" of MSG.

Anyway, Velveeta is loaded with it.

[Whitacre D_WI]

29. Mmmm... umami.

[unblock]

17. it is a cheese SAUCE maker's godsend

emulsifiers are GOOD!

ever try to make a nice, simple, stable cheddar cheese sauce? the stuff clumps and separates if you breathe the wrong way.

velveeta makes wonderful, presentable, cheese sauces simple!

[haele]

33. I know two ways to make a stable cheddar cheese sauce...

Work in equal amounts of cream cheese while melting sharp cheddar in a sauce pan or beat in 3 parts melted cheddar cheddar to 1 part mayo.
Then add whatever bits o' flavoring you might desire - salsa, herbs and garlic, Dijon mustard, pimentos, a good orange marmalade or lemon curd (citrus additions are actually pretty good mixing in mac 'n'cheese - especially if you also like to add in sweet veggies like peas and corn with bits of bacon, tuna fish, good ham, or chicken to make a mac'n cheese dinner casserole).
The former comes from kitchen testing on making the perfect home made mac'n cheese - and yes, it's better tasting and creamier than the box stuff, hands down.
You can actually refrigerate and re-nuke the sauce for a week afterwards without loosing taste or texture.
The latter (mayo and cheddar) is an Olde family "recipe" found off the back of a circa 1960's Best Foods label in my grandma's file box.
Which would suggest that using a milk/egg mixture as an emulsifier might also work. If doing this, make sure you don't add any salt until after the cheddar is mixed in; IME, uncooked / un"processed" (mixed with other substances) eggs and salt tend to have a funky aftertaste.
I'd also suggest using a sharp or extra-sharp cheddar when mixing with any emulsifier to make cheddar sauce.

Haele

[salinen]

19. Velveeta

is the substance between chimps ears.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

20. It mixes really well with salsa and black bean dip

That I know for a fact, Jack.

[Nikia]

21. I thought that it was a cheese spread

If it is like our cheese spread, it is just like American only with more water and lots of whey powder. Pasteurized processed cheese, cheese food, and cheese spread is safer than natural cheese because it is heated to a high enough temperature to kill everything. This is a very good thing. Emulsifiers allow the cheese to melt smoothly and be uniform throughout although they are not healthy in large amounts but neither is salt.

[Ediacara]

22. It's American "Cheese" in brick form

And American Cheese is a real cheese (like cheddar) that's been mixed with water and vegetable oil to make an easily meltable cheese-like food.

[Nikia]

27. Unless they make American different it has no oils

In fact, I believe that it is illegal to put vegtable components in "American cheese". If it has extra fat, it is a dairy fat. The cheese is mostly cheddar. The best Americans have a high content of barrel cheddar which is good by itself but it also includes trim cheese (like from cutting operations) and undergrade (cannot be sold as is) cheese. It is uniform and melts well because it has grainy (looks like salt) chemicals added called "emulsifers". Salt is also added. Water is added too. It is all cooked together. American cheese has a maximum moisture content of 40%.
Cheese spread has the same type of cheese as American. It does have more water and also whey powder. It has a moisture near 50%. I believe that Velveeta is cheese spread.
I don't know about Kraft but we do not put MSG in any of our pasteurized process cheese.The emulsifers might taste like it though. After all, these emulsifiers or similiar ones are also used in soap. If they don't good job of balancing these chemicals, the cheese will taste soapy.
There are also artificial colors.
I think that cheese products, substitutes, and such might be able to have vegtable oil. American cheese doesn't. It is a specific definition by law.
I say this as someone in industry.

[Occulus]

35. Wow. I knew none of that.

Thanks, though- I'd often wondered exactly what's in American cheese and others.

So, really, what you're saying is that things are added only to lengthen the shelf life and get it to melt evenly. Fine by me, I guess.

[mykpart]

24. Not sure but I couldn't cook without it!

[scottcsmith]

26. It's mmm-mmm cheesy goodness

I thought everyone knew that?

Have you ever been out for fondue? Velveeta with wine. It's true!

Okay, it's a lie, but isn't there some truth behind every lie?

[VOX]

28. Sort of a Polaroid photo of a cheeselike substance...

Barely edible, possibly good for post-nuclear fare while waiting out the fallout in a bombshelter...

[underpants]

31. We don't know and stop asking some many questions

go produce something for the economy. That is all.







:bounce:

[Hubert Flottz]

32. Trout Bait!

~j~ < ))))))))))))))))))<

[SOteric]

36. Cheese-flavoured poly-styrene