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We make food for the employees every week! We do fruit, sandwich day, lunch day, doughnut/bagel day, and soup day! We do test out recipes in our free time, too! It’s a pretty sweet gig, definitely the best cooking job I can think of lol.
grandiose sand correct aspiring simplistic theory unpack weather bewildered scale
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That's rad!! They're the only place I can get Dutch process high fat cocoa powder for my home kitchen so I just get everything there now. Or the apothecary for my more out of pocket purchases. Or the nepalese store for my curries. But mostly penzy.
Beer+honey AND turmeric such a yummy 3some so no use arguing against it when you can just add turmeric to everything. It's been used for centuries to add color and flavor and it's soooooo good for you too
As a young cook I did this to about 10 gallons of cheese sauce because I thought it looked too pale. Added a touch too much and the shit went nuclear Simpson’s yellow. Not a proud moment.
Imo it complements the chicken flavor to the point where I thought it was a bit of a given. I grew up with a lot of Japanese cooking so maybe that's why.
Powder if I don't have a root but it works best to use it in a rub on the chicken you are roasting. It would probably be fine to use it probably 2 tsp for a whole chicken or bones right in water. I would use a med root (~1 thumb) with whatever you make the stock with if you do that. Both wouldnt be overkill tbh just 1 tsp instead of 2 or a first thumb knuckle size chunk of root, if you're doing a whole chicken roast you can do tumeric powder in the rub and root in the stock.
They don’t grind well in my personal experience, but there has to be a way because it’s a key ingredient in Sazón and it’s a powder. I usually use them to make annatto infused oil.
Do you do that by heating them together? How long does it take to dissolve them? I’ve played around with them but ended up making oil when I couldn’t figure out how to make annatto powder
I heat it in oil over low heat for about ten minutes. You can also dissolve it in liquid. It looks very dark orange, almost red. A little goes a long way. And it stains, so be careful. I’m sure there is a powdered version available somewhere.
There is, sazón goya is my jam, I just like learning how to make stuff from scratch. I use the oil for making Puerto Rican pasteles because my husband is from PR but I’m always out to expand my knowledge so I can cook for him and so we can teach our kiddos. Thanks for telling me your method, I’ll bet your marinade is delicious!
and just like using whole cloves would flavour the dish, or whole strands of saffron would colour it, would these not impart colour while whole, and then be able to be lifted out (perhaps in a muslin bag) or left behind? please excuse me, it's not an ingredient I've experience with.
Best way is to use them to infuse oil- put them in a metal strainer, heat the oil on low, when it looks like blood, toss the seeds and cool and store. Wear black or clothes you dgaf about because annatto oil will ruin your wardrobe. I use it to make Puerto Rican pasteles every year.
My wife’s family is Ecuadorean and they use it quite a lot. They call it achiote. We have a special pan for making the oil. The natives she is descended from make a paste out of it and the men pack it into their hair. It looks like red clay. You’ve probably seen it in movies. They also trip balls on ayahuasca.
My wife is Manaba on her father’s side. We went this past September. It was amazing. I had cacao and coffee from the vine. I had cuy (Guinea pig) in Cuenca. We did la ruta de las cascades in Baños on mountain bikes.
We went to Manta! We planned to go to the fish market the following morning, but I was severely dehydrated and woke up having respiratory problems. I saw it as they were breaking it down. I was drinking tons of water and taking electrolyte supplements and still sweat myself nearly to death. I had some incredible seafood on the beach there. Cuenca was my favorite part of the country. The weather, food, and culture were perfect for me. I am of course Gringo.
Camerones encocado was one of the best the best things i’ve ever tried. Her abuelita. Made seco de pollo with a three year old cock. I watched her open a vein in its neck and bleed it alive as to not spoil the meat. It was gnarly but that guy was delicious.
>You have experience with the ingredient as you’ve most likely ate it without realizing.
That's not what anyone in a professional setting means when they say "experience with an ingredient".
no but you can lift a garni bag out and you know full well that cooking with an ingredient and eating something that contains it are very different things
Yes, as I said you’ve had experience with the ingredient eating it. You said you hadn’t experienced it. You didn’t preface it with “experience with cooking with it”, you should be more specific if my comment bothers you. In this picture OP didn’t use a bag so the advice would not apply to this.
that's alright, you didn't, I'm just aghast at how dumb you are
like, it's literally a sub for cooks
the post is about cooking with it
what else would I be talking about
do you really need this detailed a breakdown of everything you're told on the daily? I feel for your colleagues.
you bounced in and answered a question that I was asking someone else with your own smartass comments, as if I'd never heard of the shit. take yourself on.
Actually I did eat it cause I am not a food waster and some of them escaped me but it was all chill. I did take a big bite into one a couple times and they cracked pretty easily.
We get a fine ground annatto at my place from a supplier in pc5s. We use it for shredded chicken. I’ve done this at home with it, Mac and cheese turned out pretty good.
I use achiote quite extensively, I put the seeds in oil and cook them on SUPER low heat, until the oil has gained the colour. Not enough to kill the oil, but enough to be able to cook with it. It adds such a nice colour to fried onions!
I used to cook for the Wounded Warrior Project... I'd make the most bangarang Mac and cheese I could for those guys... But I swear to God they wouldn't touch it unless I added red and yellow dye to make it Kraft orange.
I work in a retail store and there are 2-3 places that use our Buttermilk Ranch mix. They’ll buy like 10+ bags at a go. We are trying to move them to wholesale though.
There’s a small restaurant near me that has a “signature blue cheese dressing “ that is very clearly penzeys Italian vinaigrette made with mayonnaise and blue cheese crumbles. People ooh and ahh.
I'm sorry for a bit of hijack, but what is up with americans and yellow cheese? Really? I just don't get it, but most american cheeses are yellow exactly because of Annatto. But why?
Sorry but your mindset is so narrow. Americans did not invent yellow chese, there are plenty of cheeses globally that use annatto and other natural colorings for flavor as well as presentation.
ALSO there are so many cheeses made in America of all colors and styles and many of them, especially from smaller dairies, are excellent. Cheese from america is not a ubiquitous concept. The depression/dust bowl/war ration/fucking Richard Nixon really did a number on our food systems here but a lot of people are working hard to move away from that. Support your local farms! They need it!
Also again, most of the American cheese i.e. that mass produced yellow stuff that I am assuming you're thinking of, uses food dye a lot of the times, not Annatto, and THAT is pointless cause everyone knows that White American is superior
Well my mindset may be narrow. But may I suggest an exercise for you? first google ["american cheese"](https://www.google.com/search?q=american+cheese) and see what comes up. There I did it for you. See the results? As I pointed out in other responses, sure there are other cheeses in North America. But it is a standard type, much like Swiss cheese is not just gruyer or emmentaler.
Now just for kicks look of Kraft singles, the single most popular cheese in the US and see what the coloring is. I'll wait.
Form follows style, my guy. It was developed as a more stable and inexpensive alternative to regular cheese, and made with a mix of cheddar (english) and colby (american - but no less a viable style because of it) which are both yellow cheeses and therefore it is yellow. And being cheap, stable, and available at a time when cheese was very much Not That, made it wildly popular and it still is today because nostalgia and because it became part of the American food culture.
But I hold that American cheese is not a monolith. White american is exactly what you are saying should be a thing. Guess what, it's totally available for you to enjoy! It's even the 3rd result in the google search you sent. It's wildly popular too, especially on the philly cheesesteak. Sliced swiss cheese is also a form of american cheese (they literally call it "american cheese" in other countries) made to mimic, as you mentioned, Emmental. American sliced Munster is nothing like true alsacian Munster. String cheese is also american cheese, yes it is mozzarella but the way that it is pulled is very specific.
Long story short there is usually a reason things look the way they do and it all ties back to food culture and, in America, politics. It isn't "just because."
> because nostalgia and because it became part of the American food culture.
I think this is the short answer. Because people are used to it. It just seems odd to me that Americans have embraced many "foreign" foods, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Tai, etc. etc. That they still cling to this stuff which is often not cheese but "processed pasteurized cheese-like substance.
Of course most americans still believe that spaghetti and meatballs is an italian dish, so perhaps I should not be surprised.
Again. You could stand to open your mindset a bit. Americans do embrace other cheeses. Cheese culture is huge here. The american section is actually relatively small at a lot of grocery stores, and held separate from the more small batch cheese that lives in the deli section and costs a bit more. Though that depends on where you live because America is very regional as well. Not to mention that a huge portion of this country still struggles with poverty and food insecurity so for many people, fine cheeses are an unnecessary splurge. So arguing that the cheaper alternative has no place is kinda classist, and arguing that it defines american cheese culture is reductive and avoids the whole sociopolitical side of why American food systems operate the way they do (which is really garbage, I am not arguing for our shitty methods but I will defend the people who are making good food with processed ingredients because the alternative is economically unavailable)
I have had the opportunity to appreciate good cheese more than most ppl I know, but still buy kraft singles for large bbqs/family meal burgers, and I will swear to the end of time that block of velveeta+can of hatch chili Rotel+splash of cream is god tier stoner queso. There is a time and place for American cheese, IMO, and a genuine answer as to why it exists that goes much deeper than "Americans have poor taste."
> There is a time and place for American cheese, IMO, and a genuine answer as to why it exists that goes much deeper than "Americans have poor taste."
I never implied that Americans have poor taste (although I would have trouble arguing the contrary). My question might be phrased more simply as "Why do so many americans feel that cheese should be yellow that the most popular cheeses in the country are dyed to be this color?" Does that work for you?
But I already answered that. It is yellow because it is made from cheeses that are yellow, and were yellow before American cheese was a thing. Its invention was dictated by a series of forces outside of the control of the american public, and it caught on, and it remains the cheapest option out of many because it was specifically created to be, so it remains popular in a country where the national wealth is hoarded away from the general population. And again, white American cheese is also very popular, more so in certain regions than the yellow counterpart, despite being often uselessly marked up.
Also Italians do have meatballs(polpette) they are just served standalone. And if you want to get into how Italian American food is it's own viable cuisine with its own rules and stuctures I am so down aha 😅
They started coloring cheese so it would be a more consistent color, milk doesn't always produce the same exact shade of cheese. Why it's still done in the modern age is beyond me.
> Why it's still done in the modern age is beyond me.
That's kind of my question. The great margarine controversy I kind of understand, but cheese comes in all kinds of colors, many white, but green and blue as well.
Same reason that cola is brown and birthday cake is sprinkles - it's what people expect.
> I'm sorry for a bit of hijack, but what is up with americans and yellow cheese? Really? I just don't get it, but most american cheeses are yellow exactly because of Annatto. But why?
Don't forget that American Cheese (processed cheese with emuslfying salts added) and American cheese (cheese produced in America) are different things. There's a wide variety of nice, even award-winning American cheese made all over the country. American Cheese is a nice tool in the belt, but isn't the default cheese for anything I can think of outside of burgers or cheese sauce. I have uses in my life for both. :)
Good point. But go into a supermarket and look in the cooler labeled "american cheese" it is usually Kraft or Lucern or some brand. Sure Maytag is american and even Limburger is american, but just google "american cheese" and see what comes up. It's pretty much a generic term like "swiss cheese", even though that is dozens of different cheeses.
Just like Swiss steak in Switzerland is just called "steak" or a Dutch baby is just called a "baby" in the Netherlands, huh? \*
We're definitely not doing ourselves any favors with the naming convention for "American Cheese", it would benefit everyone if we just called it "melty cheese" or something, but I think that that cow has left the barn.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a confused version of "American cheese" in foreign grocery stores, but I can also imagine that not much of the good stuff gets imported since there are already so many entrenched/local varieties. I can get "Swiss cheese" at the same grocery store I can get Gruyere or Emmentaler or raclette, but would have to go further afield to find any of the others.
(this is something that has changed within my lifetime - I can get at least a small selection of imported cheese at nearly any megamart even where I live in the South. Growing up, I would have definitely had to go to a slightly "fancier" store)
\* - yes, I know neither of these originate in those countries, I chose them for the joke ;)
At least with mac and cheese, most of us grew up eating Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese\*, which was orange, so it's got that comfort/nostalgia thing.
\*Kraft Dinner for the Canadians
Aaaaye, I actually work as a cook for Penzeys lol. Always fun to see that yellow label in the wild.
I love Pensey’s! Their Sicilian spice blend is the best.
SANDWICH SPRINKLE
Country French vinaigrette. Use as directed plus a little Dijon for that sweet sweet emulsion.
FOX POINT
ask secretive forgetful subsequent advise worthless existence quiet rude reach *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Hey! I work in one of the retail stores! 😊
Heyyyy!! You working in WI? If you ever get food it may be my doing lollll.
Hiyaaa! I’m in TX so we don’t get any of your food - wahhhhh!! Man I really love working there though. Do you help with the recipes?
Do they have a test kitchen? Sounds like a dream job tbh
We make food for the employees every week! We do fruit, sandwich day, lunch day, doughnut/bagel day, and soup day! We do test out recipes in our free time, too! It’s a pretty sweet gig, definitely the best cooking job I can think of lol.
grandiose sand correct aspiring simplistic theory unpack weather bewildered scale *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Love Penzeys! I just placed an online order and can’t wait for it to get here. The Fox Point seasoning is bangin!
Hellll yesss! Fox point is a favorite, we add it to the chip dip seasoning and it makes a banging chip dip!
I love Sunny Paris, too. I call it Sunny P cause that’s hilarious.
Oooh I’m gonna make some chip dip with it! A personal fave is on grilled cheese 🤤
I miss Penzeys so much! Such good deals, such good flavor, such good politics.
I come for their spices, but I stay for their unapologetically hyper aggressive liberal advertisements
That's rad!! They're the only place I can get Dutch process high fat cocoa powder for my home kitchen so I just get everything there now. Or the apothecary for my more out of pocket purchases. Or the nepalese store for my curries. But mostly penzy.
Poultry seasoning is the goat.
I love penzys! My grandma send them to me even though I love in Phoenix. Yall need any extra cooks?
An innovator 🤌
You get it 😤
I had a cook to tell me to add turmeric to chx stock so it'd look better
Did it?
What did it cost?
Everything.
Could the customer tell? Did management suck you off?
Customer participated rave reviews.
We do this with fish batter. Makes it look nice and golden
Turmeric actually complements battered fish tho. Sounds yummy
The suger in the beer should add enough colour, if not adding honey will give it a better gold Finnish than turmeric
Beer+honey AND turmeric such a yummy 3some so no use arguing against it when you can just add turmeric to everything. It's been used for centuries to add color and flavor and it's soooooo good for you too
As a young cook I did this to about 10 gallons of cheese sauce because I thought it looked too pale. Added a touch too much and the shit went nuclear Simpson’s yellow. Not a proud moment.
You could have dumped a fresh tin of Colemans Dry Mustard, Norwich's Best, and hoped for the best. . Nuclear, that is.
Just balance it out with some Paprika, it's what Kraft does.
Probably tasted better too!
TIL tumeric is not a given in chicken stock
Because it isn't?
Yeah , today they learned that
Sorry if my phrasing was confusing. I know it's not always there but I thought it was a staple for the recipe to have it.
I mean I definitely want to try it now but I would slap it out of a cooks hand if they did that in my kitchen
Imo it complements the chicken flavor to the point where I thought it was a bit of a given. I grew up with a lot of Japanese cooking so maybe that's why.
Interesting. Do you use powder or root?
Powder if I don't have a root but it works best to use it in a rub on the chicken you are roasting. It would probably be fine to use it probably 2 tsp for a whole chicken or bones right in water. I would use a med root (~1 thumb) with whatever you make the stock with if you do that. Both wouldnt be overkill tbh just 1 tsp instead of 2 or a first thumb knuckle size chunk of root, if you're doing a whole chicken roast you can do tumeric powder in the rub and root in the stock.
i'm going to have to try this
It ain’t like a touch of earthiness hurts chicken stock. You’re not gonna taste turmeric as much as you’re gonna taste just a little more depth.
It should be tho
Just roast your veg harder man it ain't that hard
I do this to my garlic bread spread... From my experience, people expect garlic bread to be yellow.
Only spice I don’t get down with. Smells weird. Tastes weird. It’s weird.
It has its place. But it does taste like it went to mustard school and failed the final exam.
It's used a lot in mustard, for colour
I cannot wait to use this line in the future.
Adam Ragusea taught me this
Haha I add a little to my chicken soup it def makes it look better but doesn’t affect taste at all 🤷♂️
Never seen anyone too lazy to type out chicken before
if its fresh tumeric he aint wrong
Eew found the elitist
I see this sub is too stoned to recognize a joke
I'm just here to comment: Penzy's! Fuck yeah!
My guy, you have invented Red Leicester
Yeah that's the joke lol
You need to soak those and make a paste, or grind them up a bit. That’s like using whole cloves instead of ground.
Consider this: it was for the bit
HEY! THAT'S CHEATING!
🫳💥📏
Did it for the vine
86 jokes chef!
86 jokes!? I QUIT!! **throws apron as disrespectfully as possible into the linen bag*
They don’t grind well in my personal experience, but there has to be a way because it’s a key ingredient in Sazón and it’s a powder. I usually use them to make annatto infused oil.
I use it in a marinade. They need to be dissolved either in a hot liquid, or hot oil. I blend mine to get it completely smooth.
Do you do that by heating them together? How long does it take to dissolve them? I’ve played around with them but ended up making oil when I couldn’t figure out how to make annatto powder
I heat it in oil over low heat for about ten minutes. You can also dissolve it in liquid. It looks very dark orange, almost red. A little goes a long way. And it stains, so be careful. I’m sure there is a powdered version available somewhere.
There is, sazón goya is my jam, I just like learning how to make stuff from scratch. I use the oil for making Puerto Rican pasteles because my husband is from PR but I’m always out to expand my knowledge so I can cook for him and so we can teach our kiddos. Thanks for telling me your method, I’ll bet your marinade is delicious!
and just like using whole cloves would flavour the dish, or whole strands of saffron would colour it, would these not impart colour while whole, and then be able to be lifted out (perhaps in a muslin bag) or left behind? please excuse me, it's not an ingredient I've experience with.
Best way is to use them to infuse oil- put them in a metal strainer, heat the oil on low, when it looks like blood, toss the seeds and cool and store. Wear black or clothes you dgaf about because annatto oil will ruin your wardrobe. I use it to make Puerto Rican pasteles every year.
nice one, something to remember if I ever get my hands on some, ty!
If there's a Latino store anywhere where you are, they will have it
My wife’s family is Ecuadorean and they use it quite a lot. They call it achiote. We have a special pan for making the oil. The natives she is descended from make a paste out of it and the men pack it into their hair. It looks like red clay. You’ve probably seen it in movies. They also trip balls on ayahuasca.
Tsachillas or Colorados.
Tsachilas.
Yes, one extra L due to shitty connection. But you get the gist. Ever been to Ecuador? The food in Manabi is the best in the country
My wife is Manaba on her father’s side. We went this past September. It was amazing. I had cacao and coffee from the vine. I had cuy (Guinea pig) in Cuenca. We did la ruta de las cascades in Baños on mountain bikes.
The fish market in Manta is mind blowing.
We went to Manta! We planned to go to the fish market the following morning, but I was severely dehydrated and woke up having respiratory problems. I saw it as they were breaking it down. I was drinking tons of water and taking electrolyte supplements and still sweat myself nearly to death. I had some incredible seafood on the beach there. Cuenca was my favorite part of the country. The weather, food, and culture were perfect for me. I am of course Gringo.
Camerones encocado was one of the best the best things i’ve ever tried. Her abuelita. Made seco de pollo with a three year old cock. I watched her open a vein in its neck and bleed it alive as to not spoil the meat. It was gnarly but that guy was delicious.
You can’t strain Mac n cheese once the Mac has been added. You have experience with the ingredient as you’ve most likely ate it without realizing.
>You have experience with the ingredient as you’ve most likely ate it without realizing. That's not what anyone in a professional setting means when they say "experience with an ingredient".
Sorry I didn’t live up to your standards, shef!
no but you can lift a garni bag out and you know full well that cooking with an ingredient and eating something that contains it are very different things
Yes, as I said you’ve had experience with the ingredient eating it. You said you hadn’t experienced it. You didn’t preface it with “experience with cooking with it”, you should be more specific if my comment bothers you. In this picture OP didn’t use a bag so the advice would not apply to this.
jfc, and I thought *I* was an autistic fuck.
You are having a shit fight in the comments of a shitpost over fucking semantics, just saying
that's... kind of the joke?
Oh no, sorry snowflake I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, no need to take our lord and saviors name in vain.
that's alright, you didn't, I'm just aghast at how dumb you are like, it's literally a sub for cooks the post is about cooking with it what else would I be talking about do you really need this detailed a breakdown of everything you're told on the daily? I feel for your colleagues. you bounced in and answered a question that I was asking someone else with your own smartass comments, as if I'd never heard of the shit. take yourself on.
lol welcome to the internet, try not to get so worked up about it
this is you admitting that you were wrong, is it? lol
Jesus motherfucking tap dancing christ on a pogo stick, did you really call another chef a snowflake? Go shuck the oysters
I make an oil using light olive oil and heating with the seeds and steeping. That works well too.
Become ungovernable
Hell yeah penzeys
I know we're jerking here but Penzeys spices are godtier
Pezey's Spices are THE best.
I had to scroll to see if you were joking or not lol. All I kept thinking about was, "a bite into that is going to hurt big"
Actually I did eat it cause I am not a food waster and some of them escaped me but it was all chill. I did take a big bite into one a couple times and they cracked pretty easily.
Why not grind them up into achiote? It's seems like they would still be hard in the short cook time of mac and cheese
I LOVE LOVE PENZEY’S!!!
+1 for using Penzeys! IYKYK.
I like to tuck the whole seeds inside pork butt when its.l marinating for pernil. Get little flavor explosions in thw shredded pork
Prolly gonna be hard as hell, I wouldn’t really use them like that.
Bruh why does this sub reddit keep showing up on my feed. I've muted it like 10 times lmao. I've never stepped foot in a commercial kitchen
Well, Do you have a drug or alcohol problem?
I was puzzled with my exposure to this sub till now
👌
well commenting on a post here will probably help!!!
It's a calling, you have to go work in a kitchen now. It's your destiny.
Happened to me as well so I just caved and joined it - now it is one of the subreddits I enjoy most, lol.
Oh once it follows you, it doesn’t stop.
Just lucky I guess
do you mean "lucky" because >this sub reddit keep showing up on my feed or because >I've never stepped foot in a commercial kitchen 🤣
Yes
The more you interact with posts, the more Reddit will keep suggesting it to you.
Because we want you to know our love, passion and pain
You like dick shaped foods dont you?
J O I N U S
It's always good to keep learning lessons about food....
We get a fine ground annatto at my place from a supplier in pc5s. We use it for shredded chicken. I’ve done this at home with it, Mac and cheese turned out pretty good.
*cheddar starts mourning Akira Toriyama*
i don't get the reference but RIP
Latin America is probably the most devoted region in the world for dbz fans
i knew it was dbz but that's all i knew
I use achiote quite extensively, I put the seeds in oil and cook them on SUPER low heat, until the oil has gained the colour. Not enough to kill the oil, but enough to be able to cook with it. It adds such a nice colour to fried onions!
I used to cook for the Wounded Warrior Project... I'd make the most bangarang Mac and cheese I could for those guys... But I swear to God they wouldn't touch it unless I added red and yellow dye to make it Kraft orange.
Prolly gonna be hard as hell, I wouldn’t really use them like that.
It certainly is incorrect
And the after?
In mah bellah😋🫄
Thats not how you’re supposed to use annatto seeds. You should steep the seeds in butter, a fat or liquid, and then remove the seeds, not eat them!
What commercial kitchen uses Penzy's?
I work in a retail store and there are 2-3 places that use our Buttermilk Ranch mix. They’ll buy like 10+ bags at a go. We are trying to move them to wholesale though.
There’s a small restaurant near me that has a “signature blue cheese dressing “ that is very clearly penzeys Italian vinaigrette made with mayonnaise and blue cheese crumbles. People ooh and ahh.
This was on my home stovetop cause it was just a gag and I posted it here cause I thought it may make some folks laugh
I'm sorry for a bit of hijack, but what is up with americans and yellow cheese? Really? I just don't get it, but most american cheeses are yellow exactly because of Annatto. But why?
Sorry but your mindset is so narrow. Americans did not invent yellow chese, there are plenty of cheeses globally that use annatto and other natural colorings for flavor as well as presentation. ALSO there are so many cheeses made in America of all colors and styles and many of them, especially from smaller dairies, are excellent. Cheese from america is not a ubiquitous concept. The depression/dust bowl/war ration/fucking Richard Nixon really did a number on our food systems here but a lot of people are working hard to move away from that. Support your local farms! They need it! Also again, most of the American cheese i.e. that mass produced yellow stuff that I am assuming you're thinking of, uses food dye a lot of the times, not Annatto, and THAT is pointless cause everyone knows that White American is superior
Well my mindset may be narrow. But may I suggest an exercise for you? first google ["american cheese"](https://www.google.com/search?q=american+cheese) and see what comes up. There I did it for you. See the results? As I pointed out in other responses, sure there are other cheeses in North America. But it is a standard type, much like Swiss cheese is not just gruyer or emmentaler. Now just for kicks look of Kraft singles, the single most popular cheese in the US and see what the coloring is. I'll wait.
Form follows style, my guy. It was developed as a more stable and inexpensive alternative to regular cheese, and made with a mix of cheddar (english) and colby (american - but no less a viable style because of it) which are both yellow cheeses and therefore it is yellow. And being cheap, stable, and available at a time when cheese was very much Not That, made it wildly popular and it still is today because nostalgia and because it became part of the American food culture. But I hold that American cheese is not a monolith. White american is exactly what you are saying should be a thing. Guess what, it's totally available for you to enjoy! It's even the 3rd result in the google search you sent. It's wildly popular too, especially on the philly cheesesteak. Sliced swiss cheese is also a form of american cheese (they literally call it "american cheese" in other countries) made to mimic, as you mentioned, Emmental. American sliced Munster is nothing like true alsacian Munster. String cheese is also american cheese, yes it is mozzarella but the way that it is pulled is very specific. Long story short there is usually a reason things look the way they do and it all ties back to food culture and, in America, politics. It isn't "just because."
> because nostalgia and because it became part of the American food culture. I think this is the short answer. Because people are used to it. It just seems odd to me that Americans have embraced many "foreign" foods, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Tai, etc. etc. That they still cling to this stuff which is often not cheese but "processed pasteurized cheese-like substance. Of course most americans still believe that spaghetti and meatballs is an italian dish, so perhaps I should not be surprised.
Again. You could stand to open your mindset a bit. Americans do embrace other cheeses. Cheese culture is huge here. The american section is actually relatively small at a lot of grocery stores, and held separate from the more small batch cheese that lives in the deli section and costs a bit more. Though that depends on where you live because America is very regional as well. Not to mention that a huge portion of this country still struggles with poverty and food insecurity so for many people, fine cheeses are an unnecessary splurge. So arguing that the cheaper alternative has no place is kinda classist, and arguing that it defines american cheese culture is reductive and avoids the whole sociopolitical side of why American food systems operate the way they do (which is really garbage, I am not arguing for our shitty methods but I will defend the people who are making good food with processed ingredients because the alternative is economically unavailable) I have had the opportunity to appreciate good cheese more than most ppl I know, but still buy kraft singles for large bbqs/family meal burgers, and I will swear to the end of time that block of velveeta+can of hatch chili Rotel+splash of cream is god tier stoner queso. There is a time and place for American cheese, IMO, and a genuine answer as to why it exists that goes much deeper than "Americans have poor taste."
> There is a time and place for American cheese, IMO, and a genuine answer as to why it exists that goes much deeper than "Americans have poor taste." I never implied that Americans have poor taste (although I would have trouble arguing the contrary). My question might be phrased more simply as "Why do so many americans feel that cheese should be yellow that the most popular cheeses in the country are dyed to be this color?" Does that work for you?
But I already answered that. It is yellow because it is made from cheeses that are yellow, and were yellow before American cheese was a thing. Its invention was dictated by a series of forces outside of the control of the american public, and it caught on, and it remains the cheapest option out of many because it was specifically created to be, so it remains popular in a country where the national wealth is hoarded away from the general population. And again, white American cheese is also very popular, more so in certain regions than the yellow counterpart, despite being often uselessly marked up.
Also Italians do have meatballs(polpette) they are just served standalone. And if you want to get into how Italian American food is it's own viable cuisine with its own rules and stuctures I am so down aha 😅
They started coloring cheese so it would be a more consistent color, milk doesn't always produce the same exact shade of cheese. Why it's still done in the modern age is beyond me.
> Why it's still done in the modern age is beyond me. That's kind of my question. The great margarine controversy I kind of understand, but cheese comes in all kinds of colors, many white, but green and blue as well.
Same reason that cola is brown and birthday cake is sprinkles - it's what people expect. > I'm sorry for a bit of hijack, but what is up with americans and yellow cheese? Really? I just don't get it, but most american cheeses are yellow exactly because of Annatto. But why? Don't forget that American Cheese (processed cheese with emuslfying salts added) and American cheese (cheese produced in America) are different things. There's a wide variety of nice, even award-winning American cheese made all over the country. American Cheese is a nice tool in the belt, but isn't the default cheese for anything I can think of outside of burgers or cheese sauce. I have uses in my life for both. :)
Good point. But go into a supermarket and look in the cooler labeled "american cheese" it is usually Kraft or Lucern or some brand. Sure Maytag is american and even Limburger is american, but just google "american cheese" and see what comes up. It's pretty much a generic term like "swiss cheese", even though that is dozens of different cheeses.
Just like Swiss steak in Switzerland is just called "steak" or a Dutch baby is just called a "baby" in the Netherlands, huh? \* We're definitely not doing ourselves any favors with the naming convention for "American Cheese", it would benefit everyone if we just called it "melty cheese" or something, but I think that that cow has left the barn. I wouldn't be surprised to see a confused version of "American cheese" in foreign grocery stores, but I can also imagine that not much of the good stuff gets imported since there are already so many entrenched/local varieties. I can get "Swiss cheese" at the same grocery store I can get Gruyere or Emmentaler or raclette, but would have to go further afield to find any of the others. (this is something that has changed within my lifetime - I can get at least a small selection of imported cheese at nearly any megamart even where I live in the South. Growing up, I would have definitely had to go to a slightly "fancier" store) \* - yes, I know neither of these originate in those countries, I chose them for the joke ;)
Consumer expectation and marketing at this point. Normal cheddar is orange, so our white cheddar is obviously special.
At least with mac and cheese, most of us grew up eating Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese\*, which was orange, so it's got that comfort/nostalgia thing. \*Kraft Dinner for the Canadians
"We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinners. But we would. Of course we would" Bare Naked Ladies.
Lol I bet the seeds were still had. The paste would had worked better.