Processed cheese continues to please

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2001 | 8:21 a.m.

The next time you take a bite of that cheese dog, double-double cheeseburger or bubbling, crumb-topped macaroni and cheese, the overwhelming odds are that you are eating one of the more maligned components of traditional American cuisine: processed cheese.

The fact is, Americans carry on a clandestine love affair with these cheeses, though if pressed, few of us will admit to loving it much less eating it.

Nonetheless, when we were growing up, we ate lots of it in Mom's grilled-cheese sandwiches, in gaudily wrapped gift wedges rolled in crushed nuts or flavored with red wine, and in many other forms. So just what is processed cheese, and why doesn't it get more respect?

Here's the skinny:

In essence, processed cheeses are natural cheeses that undergo various treatments. They are often a blend of selected cheeses fortified with additional milk solids and emulsifying salts. After these cheeses are mixed, they are pasteurized and agitated to produce a stable emulsion. The result is cheese that has a longer shelf life, as there is no further flavor development or maturation.

One problem with the methods used to produce them is that they contain far more sodium than natural cheeses. That old favorite American cheese, commonly sold in supermarkets as individually wrapped slices or slices jammed together, is really a processed version of natural cheddar. It has three times as much sodium per serving as its natural counterpart, so you could hardly term it a health food.

In fact, many processed cheeses contain more than 400 milligrams of sodium per 1-ounce serving, compared to a relatively low salt cheese such as Natural Swiss, where the number is only 72 milligrams per ounce. That's nearly six times the salt.

Kraft Foods has been producing two of the best-known processed cheeses on the market, Velveeta and Cheez Whiz, for as long as any of us can remember. Both of these products have their own websites, loaded with recipes and innovative ways to use them. Velveeta has even entered the lexicon as a word to describe excessive cross-posting of articles on the Internet, just as another processed food icon, Spam, has come to mean junk e-mail.

Velveeta cheese is a processed cheddar sold in block form, containing high amounts of milk solids and water. The flavored processed cheeses you get in stores, such as Harry and David or Hickory Farms, are not nearly as high in water. The high water content has an upside, though, and explains why it is so appealing to kids. It makes the cheese melt more evenly, for a more appealing visual impact.

When natural cheese is melted, more than one-third of the water content evaporates, and there is butter-oil seepage as well. A perfect-looking grilled cheese, for instance, is much easier to achieve with a product such as Velveeta.

Cheez Whiz is essentially Velveeta that has been mixed with milk, sugar, oil and spice in order to give it a moister, more spreadable texture. The actual recipe is a closely guarded secret, but there is a basic recipe for making your own on the Cookbooks/Online website.

It calls for 2 pounds of Velveeta to be melted in a double boiler with one cup of whole milk, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a half cup of butter or margarine. You can add a dash of dry mustard powder, or get as imaginative with spices as you like.

The result is higher in fat than Velveeta, but many American institutions, the Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich being one, depend on it. Cheez Whiz actually comes in plain and a Mexican variant. Ingredients on the Mexican Cheez Whiz are cheese, water, disodium phosphate, salt, mustard flour, seasonings, sorbic acid and color.

The nutritional components are as follows: Two tablespoons contains 93 calories, 4.9 grams of sodium, 7.2 grams of fat and 2.5 grams of carbohydrates. This won't impress a nutritionist, but hey, a nacho just doesn't taste like a nacho without some.

There are, in fact, many types of processed cheeses on the market, and in some cases, you may not even realize you are buying one. Cold-pack cheese foods are blends of natural cheeses mixed to achieve a smooth consistency. Unopened containers can keep for as long as six months in the fridge, but always use the date on the packaging as a guide.

Pasteurized processed cheeses are blends of fresh and aged cheeses. These will last long as well, but it is recommended to refrigerate them after they have been opened. Unopened they last for months, but opened, the shelf life is generally around one month.

Pasteurized processed cheese food, or spread, contains less cheese, less milkfat and more moisture than the first two categories, and because it contains chemical stabilizers, has a long shelf life at room temperature -- up to six months unopened.

Finally there are French processed cheeses, those foil-wrapped bits or wedges you see in upscale markets, such as La Vache Qui Rit (The Laughing Cow), Rambol (a spread often flavored with herbs and garlic) and Gourmandise, which may contain walnuts or cherries.

These cheeses are usually lower in cost than their natural counterparts. Expect to pay anywhere from $2-$4 per pound for them, depending on their provenance.

One more advantage to processed cheeses (if you consider this an advantage) is the fact that their high water content allows a few of them to be frozen, thereby extending the shelf life even more. You can freeze cold-pack cheeses for up to six months in airtight containers, and they will retain their smoothness and spreadability when they are thawed.

These cheeses are best for use in cooking, or for use as ingredients in prepared foods that are intended to be frozen, the perfect example being that caloric, hard to resist macaroni and cheese.

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