I have to admit, we never normally had to be suspicious about food names in this country, but I'm having to start reading between the lines now. So much is a trick. I say an advert for bolognaise sauce and the key selling point was that it had "natural" ingredients. What did it have before?
And don't get me going on cheese. I will bore you to tears on it. But because of my love of cheese, I do remember that you can buy a cheese sandwich in America with an ingredient called "imitation American cheese". I understand the attractiveness of making things down to a cost, but not cheese. Not ever cheese. Or even imitation cheese.
I'm with you on cheese. Usually we just call the weird fake cheese "American cheese", which is a shame, because I understand that there are some really great real cheeses made in America. There was an advertising campaign that a pizza place did here where they showed surprised and delighted customers that their tomato sauces is made from tomatoes from a tomato farm, too. I think the "natural" thing is a combination of legitimate worry about the things they put in our food and absurd paranoia that maybe they're creating tomatoes from plastic and cloned peanuts or something. Sometimes there are benefits to buying foods that advertise being made of "natural" ingredients, but sometimes there aren't. By putting "made from real tomatoes" or whatever on a package, food companies can imply that their competition is using some sort of awful fake ingredients, regardless of whether they are.
I didn't really have a handle on what American cheese was or whether American was being used as a signifier of excellence. I know even the British laugh at the French for having 200 types of cheese, but we actually have more varieties than that ourselves.
And, yeah, I guess saying something about your own product can imply the opposite about the competition, but we're so cynical here, we'd judge the boaster more harshly when the boast is something we expect anyway.
Oh, and I'm shocked that I'm no longer surprised about a chocolate or strawberry product boasting "contains real chocolate". I hate that we've become so complacent. It really was better 100 years ago.
If you see something labelled "American cheese" (or in Canada, "Canadian cheese" or "Canadian singles", I'm told), then it's a sort of processed pseudo-cheese made from protein concentrates, milkfat, salt, and I think a bit of milk. It isn't cheese, and I think it legally has to be labelled "cheese product" or something similar when sold here. Actual cheeses invented or made in America are usually labelled with the type of cheese and/or state/city they were made in (in some cases, like Pinconning cheese, the place of invention and the name of the cheese are the same). So yeah, if you see something that says "Cheese made in Wisconsin" or "Colby cheese" or something, it's real cheese that's probably good. If it just says "American cheese", steer clear.
Also eh, I wouldn't want to be living on the cusp of WWI (and then the Great Depression), personally, no matter how much real chocolate there was.
I eat hot cocoa powder, but won't drink it?
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I have to admit, we never normally had to be suspicious about food names in this country, but I'm having to start reading between the lines now. So much is a trick. I say an advert for bolognaise sauce and the key selling point was that it had "natural" ingredients. What did it have before?
And don't get me going on cheese. I will bore you to tears on it. But because of my love of cheese, I do remember that you can buy a cheese sandwich in America with an ingredient called "imitation American cheese". I understand the attractiveness of making things down to a cost, but not cheese. Not ever cheese. Or even imitation cheese.
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VioletTrees
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I'm with you on cheese. Usually we just call the weird fake cheese "American cheese", which is a shame, because I understand that there are some really great real cheeses made in America. There was an advertising campaign that a pizza place did here where they showed surprised and delighted customers that their tomato sauces is made from tomatoes from a tomato farm, too. I think the "natural" thing is a combination of legitimate worry about the things they put in our food and absurd paranoia that maybe they're creating tomatoes from plastic and cloned peanuts or something. Sometimes there are benefits to buying foods that advertise being made of "natural" ingredients, but sometimes there aren't. By putting "made from real tomatoes" or whatever on a package, food companies can imply that their competition is using some sort of awful fake ingredients, regardless of whether they are.
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dappled
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I didn't really have a handle on what American cheese was or whether American was being used as a signifier of excellence. I know even the British laugh at the French for having 200 types of cheese, but we actually have more varieties than that ourselves.
And, yeah, I guess saying something about your own product can imply the opposite about the competition, but we're so cynical here, we'd judge the boaster more harshly when the boast is something we expect anyway.
Oh, and I'm shocked that I'm no longer surprised about a chocolate or strawberry product boasting "contains real chocolate". I hate that we've become so complacent. It really was better 100 years ago.
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VioletTrees
11 years ago
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If you see something labelled "American cheese" (or in Canada, "Canadian cheese" or "Canadian singles", I'm told), then it's a sort of processed pseudo-cheese made from protein concentrates, milkfat, salt, and I think a bit of milk. It isn't cheese, and I think it legally has to be labelled "cheese product" or something similar when sold here. Actual cheeses invented or made in America are usually labelled with the type of cheese and/or state/city they were made in (in some cases, like Pinconning cheese, the place of invention and the name of the cheese are the same). So yeah, if you see something that says "Cheese made in Wisconsin" or "Colby cheese" or something, it's real cheese that's probably good. If it just says "American cheese", steer clear.
Also eh, I wouldn't want to be living on the cusp of WWI (and then the Great Depression), personally, no matter how much real chocolate there was.