Featured Image Credit: milanfoto/Getty Images
Topics: US Food
Rachael Davis
As a nation of cheese lovers with some not-insignificant contributions to the world’s array of fermented milk – we really don’t get the props we deserve for bringing cheddar into reality – we Brits have some strong opinions on our American cousin’s cheeses.
Squeezy cheese is particularly egregious as far as milky condiments are concerned but, let’s face it, we’re mostly kidding ourselves when we say we don’t like the square packets of burger cheese typical to American burgers.
We know it’s processed to within an inch of its calcium content, but it undeniably adds a certain je ne sais quoi to a burger. Cheddar slices can be a bit overpowering in that context, while cheese singles know they aren’t the main event.
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You might think differently about the stuff once you’ve seen this Redditor’s unusual cheese slice melted over… well, we’re not sure what that is, but it’s beside the point.
Take a look at those lines! They’re so straight and uniform that they look like a computer’s ribbon cabling.
“Why did my cheese get these lines when it melted?” they asked.
Some suggested the lines resulted from the plastic the cheese slices come wrapped in, to which the original poster said: “I put a slice on top of my shredded potatoes.” So that’s what it is!
Anyway: “This cheese is not individually wrapped, so no wrapper marks.
“When I ate it, the cheese was breaking cleanly along the lines. Kinda like it was laminated.”
Confusion ensued, with one person joking, “Heating revealed the invisible barcode.”
“Ewwww that looked processed af,” said an expert in stating the obvious.
Another said: “Fake cheese, don’t eat that c**p. Sold all over the US. Actually called cheese food or something like that. Disgusting.”
So, what’s actually going on here?
Thankfully, someone came through with a ‘serious answer’ to put the questions to bed.
“These slices are likely made on a conveyor belt,” they said.
“The lines are probably from the dispenser that secretes the cheese onto the belt before it cools to a semi solid form. Maybe this slice was towards the end of the roll, like receipt paper.”
“Secreting cheese on a conveyor belt sounds disturbing," someone replied to the theory.
“If it came sliced but not wrapped it could have seen been a manufacturing thing that left deviations in it, like it was pushed through rollers or something,” suggested another.
While we’re on the subject of cheese singles being processed: you all know that (mostly) all cheese is highly processed, right?