American Cheese 250

Cheesy and Fondue celebrate America's 250th Birthday with Cheese. We talk about a giant wheel, a weird presidential cheese combo, we find out about the teen who invented the cheeseburger, and we learn that a Canadian gave us our very own American single. And of course, we tell a very cheesy joke!

Find us at www.justcheesy.com and everywhere you enjoy social media! https://linktr.ee/JustCheesy

***There is no cheesy sponsor for this episode. Do you want to trade some cheese for a host read ad? Contact us at [e-mail]***

Why is cheddar the most dangerous of all the cheeses? Because it is very sharp!

Show Notes

https://historyfacts.com/us-history/article/gifts-given-to-u-s-presidents/

https://www.tastingtable.com/2126299/richard-nixon-cottage-cheese-with-ketchup/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Kraft

https://www.northernpublicradio.org/illinois/2021-06-07/this-week-in-illinois-history-krafting-cheese-june-6-1916

https://culturecheesemag.com/blog/pure-unprocessed-american-kraft/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processed_cheese

https://www.visitpasadena.com/blog/how-the-cheeseburger-was-invented-in-pasadena/

https://thedairyalliance.com/blog/a-quick-bite-into-the-history-of-the-cheeseburger

https://www.mashed.com/2089235/cheeseburger-invention-pasadena-california/

https://www.aol.com/cheeseburger-invented-louisville-restaurant-claims-103204578.html

https://www.rimping.com/blog/8121/cheeseburger-history-american-icon

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Just Cheesy the podcast,presented by Just Cheesy Productions.
Hi there. I'm your host, Fondue
Cheesy Here
we're celebrating America's250th birthday.
Happy birthday.
We're gonna talk about a giantwheel of cheese, a weird presidential
combo. We're gonna find outabout a teen who invented the cheeseburger.

(00:23):
And we're gonna learn that aCanadian gave us our very own American
single. And we're gonna tell avery cheesy joke. Stay tun and cheese.
250. On Just Cheesy thepodcast, we're celebrating America's
250th birthday the only way weknow how. And that's with stories
about cheese. Let's talk about1802 with a presidential cheese story.

(00:47):
That's huge.
Huge.
Let's talk about presidents,shall we?
Yes, please.
The first story begins in1802. National Geographic and the
Smithsonian. Talk about aminister from Massachusetts. He organized
the citizens of his town tocontribute milk from every cow they
owned to make a gift forPresident Thomas Jefferson.
Holy cow.
According to the nationalportrait gallery, approximately 900

(01:09):
cows were involved.
900.
And the result? Well, it was awheel. And it was a very, very big
wheel. It measured 4ft across.
Holy cow.
17 inches high. It weighed1235 pounds.
What?
This big thing arrived at theWhite House on New Year's Day in
1802.
Wow.
And then, of course, not to beoutdone, according to popular science

(01:31):
in the national portraitgallery, in 1835, a dairy farm commissioned
an even larger gift toPresident Jackson. It weighed 1400
pounds. It arrived at theWhite House in a cart pulled by 24
horses. And as the story goes.We know this one.
Yeah, we do.
According to the BoundaryStones history site, it sat aging
in the White house for overtwo years.

(01:53):
Two years, people.
That's right. It arrived in1835. But on February 22, 1837, the
last public reception ofJackson's presidency, he opened the
White House to literally everyone.
Everyone.
There were so many people thatthey couldn't fit through the doors,
and some of them climbedthrough the windows. The 1400 pound
wheel was consumed inapproximately two hours. And the

(02:17):
staff of the incomingpresident, Martin Van Buren, spent
days airing out carpets,stripping curtains, and whitewashing
the walls. That's how bad thiswas. That cheese got old and moldy.
But it was two years old, of course.
Yeah.
That led Van Buren to ban foodat the White House receptions. I
would think Obama revived thetradition twice holding big block

(02:38):
of cheese days and invited theAmerican public to submit questions
directly to the White House staff.
Did he have a 1400 pound wheel?
He didn't have. No, he didn'thave a 1400 pound wheel of cheese.
Oh, good.
Now this one is a little bit weird.
The President or the Chief?
Well, maybe both. According tothe tasting table, Food Republic
and the Nixon PresidentialLibrary, Richard Nixon ate something

(02:59):
every single day during hispresidency. In fact, he told reporters
at a 1969 White Houseconference on food, nutrition and
health that he ate cottagecheese regularly because it was good
for him, even though he didn'tlike it.
Okay.
They say that the habit camefrom his grandmother, who ate cottage
cheese daily and lived to 93.His doctor also recommended it for

(03:20):
weight control.
Eating cottage cheese everyday isn't weird.
Nope. It's not weird to eatcottage cheese every day.
No.
It's also not weird to have itpermanently stocked during your presidency
because on the night of yourinauguration, the White House kitchen
staffer had to drive aroundsearching for cottage cheese because
none was available. Thosearen't weird. But what is weird?
Didn't like cottage cheese.And you know how he made it easier

(03:42):
to finish and eat it every day?
I don't know.

(04:33):
He covered it with ketchup.Cottage cheese with ketchup is definitely
not a sponsor. But if it was,the ad would go right here. Did you
know that the cheeseburger wasinvented in 1924 by a 16 year old
named Lionel Clark Sternberger?
It was.
That's right. According toVisit Pasadena and the Dairy alliance
and multiple other foodsources, he was working as a short

(04:55):
order cook at his father'ssandwich shop. And apparently, according
to Mashed, there are twoversions of the story. First, Lionel
accidentally burned ahamburger patty and put a slice of
cheese on top to hide the mistake.
Good thinking.
The second one says he wasjust experimenting out of boredom.
Either way, According to VisitPasadena, he called it the Aristocratic
Burger, described it on themenu as the original hamburger with

(05:17):
cheese. But there's somediscrepancies here. According to
the Louisville CourierGeneral, the word cheeseburger itself
was coined at Kalin'srestaurant in Louisville, Kentucky
in 1934 when the owner putcheese on a hamburger and the name
stuck. But according to theDairy Alliance, Louis Ballast of
the Humpty Dumpty Drive in inDenver trademarked the name cheeseburger

(05:39):
in 1935. I happen to enjoy acheeseburger, so it doesn't matter
to me who invented it.
Nope.
But this is interesting.
It is.
According to a YouGov poll, 74of Americans say they usually put
cheese on their burgers.
Holy cow.
Cheese is, of course, the mostpopular burger topping in the country.
Of course, it's more popularthan ketchup, lett, onion, or bacon.

(06:01):
Now you're thinking toyourself, we're definitely going
to talk about Mac and cheese.Well, we're not. Its origins span
across Europe. And you'd say,well, what about fondue? Nope. It
comes from Switzerland. Andcheddar cheese did not originate
in Wisconsin.
It didn't.
It came from England. Butthere's one quintessential cheese
that we all know in thiscountry and some of us love.

(06:21):
Okay?
It's called American cheese.
Oh, yeah.
The slice, the single, theooey, gooey, melty goodness of American
cheese. But do you want toknow what? According to Wikipedia
and the Oxford EnglishDictionary, the term American cheese
first appeared in print in aFrankfurt, Kentucky newspaper called
the Guardian of freedom in1804. At that time, it referred to

(06:44):
cheddar made in America, whichBritish colonists had been producing
since the 1600s. And Wikipediasays by 1790, American made cheddar
was being exported back toEngland, where it was called Yankee
cheddar. But then came a mannamed James L. Kraft.
Oh, yeah.
He lived in Chicago in 1903,and he came there with a horse, a
wagon, and a plan to wholesalecheese to businesses around the city.

(07:07):
According to Culture Cheesemagazine, he and his brothers melted
down large vats of cheddar,pasteurized them, and added sodium
phosphate while constantlystirring. And that produced a longer
lasting, shelf stable product.
Wow.
According to Northern PublicRadio, the patent was issued in 1916,
and the U.S. governmentpromptly purchased 5 million pounds
of it to feed soldiers inWorld War I. Culture Cheese magazine

(07:30):
says that by 1930, 40% of allcheese consumed in the U.S. was made
by Kraft. American cheese isnot plastic. It's not even really
fake.
Okay.
The history of Americancheese, according to the Retroist,
says that to legally be calledAmerican cheese, a product must contain
at least 51% real cheese. Andthat's typically cheddar or Colby.

(07:53):
And then it's combined withemulsifying agents. Okay, this is
emulsifying salt, typicallysodium citrate. And this is what
gives American cheese itssignature melt. According to multiple
food science sources, theemulsifiers prevent the fat from
separating when heated. Andthis is why American cheese melts
into a smooth, even glossypool rather than breaking into greasy

(08:15):
puddles. We love all sorts ofcheese here on Just Cheesy, the podcast.
Yeah, we do.
Lots of people have spentdecades looking down on American
cheese. For lots of differentreasons. And we're not gonna do that
here.
No.
It was designed to feedpeople. A lot of people. It was designed
to be affordable and reliable.It didn't require a cave or a certificate
of authenticity or any kind ofa special knife.

(08:37):
Yeah.
This processed cheese wasdesigned specifically because it
could be shipped to soldierswithout spoiling.
Oh, yeah.
And it's been feeding familiesever since. And if you truly cannot
make peace with Americancheese, if the wrapper offends you,
if the shelf life concernsyou, if the legal definition of cheese
keeps you up at night, we haveone thing to say. Blame Canada. That's

(08:57):
right, folks. James L. Kraftwas born in Ontario, Canada. He invented
it. He patented it. He soldthat 5 million pounds of it to the
US government.
Yep.
American cheese was made by aCanadian and named after America.
I'm ready for a joke. Fondue.
Okay. Why didn't the band askAmerican Cheese to join?
I don't know. Why?
Because they already had a wrapper.

(09:19):
That was dumb. Oh. Oh.
It was dumb. And a little bitcheesy. Thanks for listening to Just
Cheesy, the podcast Americancheese. 250.
Thank you.
Cheeses of all kinds have beenpart of the American story since
before there was an America.You can learn more at justcheesy.com.

(09:40):
make sure to put some cheeseon something today
and stay cheesy, everybody.