American Cheese Isn't Cheese

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Hi, I'm James. I explore the world looking for interesting engineering stories which explore complex issues in interesting ways. I hold a First-Class Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Australia and am currently studying a Masters of Space Systems Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[AtomicFrontier]

Eating my props after a hot day of filming was not a Gouda idea! Feeling Feta now though.

[Kerbezena]

"these aren't milking robots, they're milking cows"

Congratulations, James! I didn't know that you were already a dad at such a young age.

[MikevanMeer]

In Dutch we couldn't translate "peanut butter" directly because the word "butter" was protected. So now we call it "pindakaas" which literally means "peanut cheese". Very silly

[Alex-cwrz]

Another example is Chocolate, in the UK and other European nation, American Chocolate has so little cocoa in it that it cannot legally be sold as Chocolate

[advisingbob]

Canada: "What do you think of this processed cheese?"
Other Countries: "Looks disgusting..."
Canada: "...which is why it's *American* cheese!"
Other Countries: "Makes sense...is that...pineapple...on pizza?"
Canada:"...Hawaiian..."

[deephorizon]

That part where you revealed that James Kraft called it "American Cheese" as a marketing gimmick made me laugh way too hard 😂

[MZachary]

It's kind of a nitpick, but at 4 minutes when you discuss the earliest versions of canning, it's important that the bottle actually be filled fully with a liquid (water, stock, etc) that surrounds the "dry" food. The anaerobic environment provided by the liquid is key in preventing the food from spoiling.

It's the same reasons why cans of beans and other vegetables are filled with a liquid. technically we can now can things in a vacuum and eliminate the need for the liquid, but thats a very recent development that Napoleon would not have had.

[joshuaurbany]

As someone in the Army, I get very pissed if I don't have my cheese spread in my ration. I can't imagine warring my way across Europe without any cheese.

[mannbat]

As an Australian I love the iron-ore price collapse joke. Brillant!
Bega (who make the apocalypse-ready canned cheese in the video) is a very famous producer of milk products here.
Ironically they got caught up in a lawsuit with Kraft over peanut butter of all things.

[Nswix]

As someone with a masters in dairy science, good job. This video makes me very excited and you got everything right.

[cnr]

James I used to go to school with you at Hale in Perth, so cool to see what you’ve been doing with this channel. Good luck in the future.

[Thomas-sroq]

gotta say, this is probably the cleanest and most well flowing video you've ever done!

your hard work is being noticed and I hope you continue growing, good job!

[posysajrazdwatrzy]

I'm happy to know whenever Tom Scott retires, you'll fill in that gap and surpass him, in time. You've grown so much. Thank you for continuing your work and I genuinely hope you'll keep doing this.

[hugmynutus]

Minor point: Those farms in/around point reyes are super controversial as they're on federal land. The farmer's lease expired in 1990, but no gov body has evicted them. They've nearly driven the elk species that lives in the area extinct. Currently there is only ~200 Elk left, and ranchers are campaigning to cull the southern herd leaving only ~60.

[krossdreemurr]

Saying "American cheese is not cheese" is like saying "meatloaf is not meat."

[snoozyboio]

I don't think there's any reason to bastardize or criminalize the consumption of process cheese. I think, for the most part, knowing what goes into your body is more important than just being fearful of it because someone a long time ago told you they had heard something from someone who knew a guy who said something. I remember watching an Adam Ragusea video, who had a dilemma. He needed to make a cheese sauce from a bunch of different cheeses, but they all had their own melting points and melting viability. To solve this, he threw a slice of kraft american cheese (the "process cheese product" stuff) into the pot, and let the sodium citrate do all the work. An american philly cheesesteak wouldn't taste the same with a bunch of gorgonzola and feta on it, even though those cheeses are more authentically cheese than the process cheese product, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to make it healthier for better consumption in the long run. I, for one, like cheddar on mine, but that's beyond the point.

I think there's more to say about the overconsumption of these things nowadays, rather than the creation of them in the first place. A lot of canned and packaged food that americans consume today have their roots in convenience for soldiers going to war (that's where you get m&m's, especially the peanut ones), and even now it's become more sustainable to purchase these because they're more readily available than the fancy frou-frou foods, and cheaper to purchase. Sometimes, it's a choice between going hungry or eating something, even if it's not the most nutritionally dense. Even fresh produce is becoming more expensive to purchase, pushing people to consume, and over-consume, products made by companies who care more about lining their pockets and turning a profit more than anything else. More or less, I just hope people become more knowledgeable about producing their own food, and putting some authority back in the hands of the consumer, instead of us literally eating ourselves to death because we simply did not know better.

[Crw]

It's also worth noting that Gorgonzola is a protected geographical indication in the EU and a lot of other territories, not only having to contain certain compounds, but also having to come from around *Gorgonzola* in Italy.

[sistermary]

Fun facts. Keeping cheese good for longer also led to the invention of the wheels with a waxed rind. Gouda is also only a protected way of making cheese, they failed to make it also protected as something regional. Who you can get Gouda style cheese as long as it appears to the same cheese making process as cheese made in Gouda. There's plenty of other Dutch cheese that are all different, with some names very protected that only a few farms still make those cheeses.

[michaellasfetto]

"Government Cheese" That's a pretty deep cut for someone with a non-American accent who was not born in the 1980s or earlier.

[yvxwnso]

Here is a note of genuine appreciation of your implementation of the classic, subtle act of slowly approaching the camera in an outdoor location while talking about a thing to a video camera.