3 ms·

I'm not sure, there's a huge difference in the cheese sold next to the milk and eggs and stuff and the cheese sold in the deli section. The Kraft/cracker barre

I'm not sure, there's a huge difference in the cheese sold next to the milk and eggs and stuff and the cheese sold in the deli section. The Kraft/cracker barrel style Cheddar and stuff doesn't even come close to resembling even mild Cheddar in that section and has a consistency closer to rubber than cheese, even the apparently old and extra old cheddar of the Kraft/cracker barrel kind. I find it hard to accept that it's even really cheese and i've never really gotten to experience really nice cheese like some of the other commenters here have mentioned. The Kraft/cracker barrel cheeses go mouldy in a completely different way the other cheeses do. The mould itself even looks different. I'm not sure exactly what pasteurization/sterilization methods are used on those cheeses vs the others, but there's a noticable difference not only in taste and texture, but during the actual moulding process which would be directly affected by any kind of pasteurization or sterilization.

amluto 6y ago
I would not personally consider Kraft products to be cheese. The US has a complex definition, for example: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=133.169 https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFR... If you look in the cheese section of a decent store, you’ll find many real cheese with ingredients like “pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, cultures”. These contain living cultures but not raw milk, and many of them have long shelf lives. My point is that, while you’re unlikely to find raw milk in a sterile so-called cheese product, actual cheese is not sterile despite often containing pasteurized milk. And that pasteurizing the milk isn’t necessarily done for food safety reasons — some cheese recipes call for raw milk and some call for cooking the milk.
- grawprog 6y ago
  >I would not personally consider Kraft products to be cheese I wholeheartedly agree with this. Most Kraft products like the singles and cheese wiz and shit, the 'modified milk products' are not even close to cheese. What i was talking about are all those cheeses most people buy from the fair section, there's usually a mild, medium, old Cheddar selection, a mozzarella, lately i've seen Monterey jacks. Those are what I think of as the sterile 'cheese' made with pasteurized milk and lacking in active cultures. I'm guessing, like you say, they're likely closer to those modified milk products than real cheese, but for many, many people, that's the cheese they know, buy and eat. I've had raw milk cheese before and i've eaten plenty of active culture cheeses, the difference between them isn't really that noticable, they're all actual cheese.
  - amluto 6y ago
    That’s a good point! I think everyone would agree that fresh ricotta is a cheese, but it’s cooked at the end of its production. According to Wikipedia, traditional mozzarella is, in fact, cultured.

amluto 6y ago

I would not personally consider Kraft products to be cheese. The US has a complex definition, for example: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=133.169 https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFR... If you look in the cheese section of a decent store, you’ll find many real cheese with ingredients like “pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, cultures”. These contain living cultures but not raw milk, and many of them have long shelf lives. My point is that, while you’re unlikely to find raw milk in a sterile so-called cheese product, actual cheese is not sterile despite often containing pasteurized milk. And that pasteurizing the milk isn’t necessarily done for food safety reasons — some cheese recipes call for raw milk and some call for cooking the milk.

grawprog 6y ago
>I would not personally consider Kraft products to be cheese I wholeheartedly agree with this. Most Kraft products like the singles and cheese wiz and shit, the 'modified milk products' are not even close to cheese. What i was talking about are all those cheeses most people buy from the fair section, there's usually a mild, medium, old Cheddar selection, a mozzarella, lately i've seen Monterey jacks. Those are what I think of as the sterile 'cheese' made with pasteurized milk and lacking in active cultures. I'm guessing, like you say, they're likely closer to those modified milk products than real cheese, but for many, many people, that's the cheese they know, buy and eat. I've had raw milk cheese before and i've eaten plenty of active culture cheeses, the difference between them isn't really that noticable, they're all actual cheese.
- amluto 6y ago
  That’s a good point! I think everyone would agree that fresh ricotta is a cheese, but it’s cooked at the end of its production. According to Wikipedia, traditional mozzarella is, in fact, cultured.