How to Processed Cheese

Does the word ‘processed’ in ‘processed cheese’ cheese you off? Here is a slice of information on processed cheese and natural cheese.
Cheese – milk’s leap toward immortality. – Clifton Fadimon
Processed cheese, popularly known as American cheese, is a milk product that has blended well with other compelling foods that are lined up in fancy-looking cartons in a supermarket. The delectable dishes that come to one’s mind and the more scrumptious ones that can be invented with the mention of ‘cheese’! And if you aren’t someone who’s feeling particularly gorged right now and is terribly devoted to pleasures of the table, especially foods with cheese sauces and the like, you must be within an ace from dropping off your chair by the sudden blow of a weakened state of hunger. Distracting oneself by making more use of your intellect than the heart of your stomach usually does the trick; so here now, I shall mention its etymology.
The Old English word for ‘cheese’ was cyse that came from the West Germanic kasjus. In the German language it is Kaese. In Middle Dutch – case from the Latin word caseus; in Welsh – caws, perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European base kwat which means ‘to ferment, become sour’. In India, in the ancient language of Prakrit chasi meant ‘buttermilk’; Old Church Slavic – kvasu which meant ‘leaven’, kyselu ‘sour’, kyseti- ‘to turn sour’ and in Sanskrit, kvathati which means ‘boils, seethes’! With so many similar sounding words, one can’t thoroughly ascertain how man got to know of cheese but one can draw upon its extensive trail as to how it may have originated in quite a few countries. And most ancient tales that are slight fable with interspersions of many promising facts sound enthralling. With the story of cheese, it was said that around 5000 BC there were nomadic tribes from Central Asia galloping on their horses. They carried bags made out of goat’s and sheep’s stomach with milk in them. Their stomachs naturally contain a lining of rennet, lactic acid and bacteria. As the horse galloped, the milk in them churned and, over the time, curdled. They probably drank the whey and left the rest in earthen pots where it fermented over time to form cheese.
Processed Cheese vs. Natural Cheese
How to make cheese? Rather, how does one make natural cheese? One can do it even at home and, I suppose, this cheese would be one of the healthiest to eat. Natural cheese can be made from the milk of cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep and camels. Milk, which is one of the most important cheese food ingredients, is heated and brought to a certain temperature that is conducive for the growth of essential bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum) that would ferment it. The bacteria feed on the lactose in the milk turning it to lactic acid. Those that produce only lactic acid are called ‘homofermentive bacteria’, whilst the ones that make not only lactic acid but also other compounds like ethanol/acetic acid and carbon (CO2) as by-products are called ‘heterofermented bacteria’. When the milk sours, it separates itself into curd and whey. Both have several nutrients like minerals, proteins, vitamins and essential amino acids. The color and flavor of the cheese depends upon the quality of the milk from which it is made.
Here’s a quick skim through the different types of cheese – cheddar, feta, asiago, blue cheese, brie, gorgonzola, Swiss cheese are some of the ones popularly known and loved.
More about Processed Cheese
The couple of rushing brand names that pop up into one’s head, the moment one thinks of processed cheese are “Kraft”, The French cheese – “La Vache Qui Rit” (pronounced as ‘vahsh-keeh-ree’), which is more popularly known around the English-speaking world as “The Laughing Cow”. Kraft, the largest company for confectionery foods and beverages in U.S.A., and hence well-known, was founded by James Lewis Kraft who was of German ancestry. It started flourishing with its myriad varieties of processed cheese being sold around 1914. The Laughing Cow, being originally French, has also gained world-wide popularity with the innumerable types of processed cheeses it manufactures.
The Making of Processed Cheese
What is processed cheese? While making processed cheese, natural cheese (Cheddar is the most commonly used) is tempered with. Processing it involves the use of salts, emulsifiers, additives, preservatives and added artificial colors.
Artificial Food Colors and Additives
Artificial food colors and food additives play a major role in the making of processed cheese. There can be some dangerous food additives. And these, to me, are quite the ogres that make processed cheese quite, quite unhealthy when added. The human brain was designed to understand naturally occurring colors in fruits and vegetables and the foods we ate. When cheese is colored too unnaturally and vibrantly, the color tricks your innate senses into thinking that it is healthy. The human body is designed to eat natural foods and not ones that are made from unnatural chemicals. Coloring in foods has been linked to cancer and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). So it is best to see to it that the processed cheese you eat doesn’t look too good to be true, because it probably isn’t. Again, check the label to ascertain the percentage of ingredients.
Salt
Whilst processing cheese, the salt is more pronounced. Salt is a natural preservative, that plays a vital role in increasing the shelf-life of the cheese. It would, most certainly, contain a lot more sodium than those in an organic Cheddar cheese. Sodium multiplied by a 2.5 is the salt content of the cheese. Check the label to make sure the percentage of ingredients. One has, hence, to be careful with the amounts of processed cheese he/she eats as high intake of salt comes with its own soup of problems such as stroke, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, asthma and also, if in dreadful extremes, it has been linked to stomach cancer.
Emulsifiers
Emulsifiers are molecules that are half water-friendly and half oil-friendly; which simply means that when they are used with pasteurized natural cheese, they add to the texture of the cheese, stop the fat from being separated from the cheese whilst being heated and reduce microbial activity, thus increasing it’s shelf-life by tremendous degrees. The emulsifiers used extensively are monoglycerides and diglycerides (E471), and acetic acid esters of monoglycerides and diglycerides of fatty acids (E472a) to give processed cheese a wax coating giving it a palatably aesthetic appeal.
There are various kinds of cheeses. Some cheeses can be eaten when they’re fresh; whilst it is best to let some others age and ripen by keeping them in storage having apt temperatures and levels of humidity, wrapped in cloth or hay, and in wispy cushions of flavoring molds. Every kind of cheese, just like us, has its own personality and gets better when put in different conditions in order to be of the most superior quality. Usually, it’s the unpasteurized cheeses that are of better quality than those that come from pasteurized milk. Though, the necessity to pasteurize it came due to the presence of a disease-causing bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis in milk-products. A lot of cheese connoiseurs disdain the thought of pasteurizing milk for making cheese as all the natural bacteria that give natural cheeses their superior quality are killed in the process of it. They reckon that factories, where cheese is produced, are quite clean for manufacturing good natural cheese.
So, whether it is cheese or any other food product – it would be maintained that what is natural is always healthy and what is healthy is always natural. And cheeses with all their plumes of delicacy have a right to be healthy. Is cheese good for you? What is healthy cheese? Certainly, it is the one with less use of chemicals. Processing cheese by adding too many chinafooding additives and colors has nipped away some of the benefits of eating natural cheese; and you and me, hopefully, shall learn to differentiate what is right for our bodies and what isn’t. It certainly isn’t the most difficult thing!