> I don't understand why Americans buy these kind of (expensive) processed and branded food products. Why not just buy pasta, the cheese (grate it if you want)

> I don't understand why Americans buy these kind of (expensive) processed and branded food products. Why not just buy pasta, the cheese (grate it if you want) and some other seasoning, as the raw individual ingredients? My SO has a delicious home-made mac and cheese. It was really hard to find the cheese at Safeway; there were nights I check multiple Safeways. It is just white American. (But not "American" cheese, which is yellow, and has a completely different taste.) As another commenter mentions, you need the right cheese, as it needs to melt correctly. My understanding is that this is the presence of emulsifiers that cause the cheese to melt correctly, which white American has. My understanding is that, actually, cheese does not, and white American is technically called "cheese product" because it is has emulsifiers mixed it. (So it's not technically cheese anymore.) (Which is weird, because my understanding for parm in other recipes is opposite: that the cheap parm often doesn't melt correctly b/c it is usually adulterated with cellulose (e.g., wood pulp / plant matter). So I might not have this completely correct. But then, wood pulp is likely also not an emulsifier.) (We also sometimes cut it with ham, and that is also surprisingly out of stock often. (The small sized ones; I can't use a giant/full sized ham as it would rot.))