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AshlieStevens

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jun 25, 2015
Messages
8
Location
Louisville
Hi everyone-- my name is Ashlie Stevens. I am a writer working on a piece for Paste Magazine (I hope this is okay to share in the group? If not, I will gladly delete!) about recipes people grew up eating that incorporated Velveeta cheese, and how people are modifying those recipes now using different cheese or even making homemade Velveeta. If you have a favorite recipe or memory of a recipe that fits this theme, I'd love to hear from you and ask you a few questions for this piece! Thank you!
 
Hi Ashlie and welcome.

You will find some here who love Velveeta, and those who think it's vile, to put it nicely.

Personally, I don't use it often but have nothing against it either. It's melting qualities are outstanding in my opinion.

What questions do you want to ask?
 
Welcome to DC.

I'm in the Velveeta fan corner. I get the low fat version, and find it makes a great base for cauliflower or broccoli cheese soup, as well as vegetable sauces. I usually add additional cheeses along with other ingredients. I too love Velveeta's melting qualities.
 
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I have to agree with the above. Due to its melting qualities, its often one of the cheese of choice for me to create a nice soup base for broccoli or cauliflower cheese soups. Ill often add additional varieties of cheese for different flavors.

I also remember 100 years ago, when i was in high school we made a killer mac and cheese using velveeta too, I don't remember the actual recipe though.

Also good to make a cheese sauce to drizzle on nachos too.
 
Velveeta isn't actually cheese. It's "Pasteurized Recipe Cheese Product". It doesn't contain cheese, but does have milk solids, etc. Because of that, it melts beautifully, unlike real cheese, which separates into fat & solids when too much heat is applied.

I've made my own melting cheese (made with real cheese) using the process in Modernist Cuisine. The method is basically melting real cheese in a bit of additional liquid and adding sodium citrate. You can firm it up in a block (like Velveeta) or in flat squares (like that other fake product - American slices). My homemade 'melty cheese' was a vast improvement in taste, and made a perfect mac & cheese, but for my purposes, too much work for a limited use. If I want cheese to melt, I skip the cheddar and use something that will melt nicely.

All that aside, I grew up on the stuff. Velveeta and American slices were pretty much all my mother ever bought. To me, a bowl of Campbell's cream of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich made with Velveeta was the ultimate comfort food.

A couple years ago when I had a bad case of the flu, I was remembering that to a friend. She went shopping and brought the white bread, margarine, Velveeta & soup and made my lunch. WOW! It sure knocked that memory out of my head forever! Worst tasting c**p I've ever eaten! :(
 
Sometimes we make Velveeta cheese dip during football tv season. Melt a block of velveeta, add a can of tomatoes/ diced chilies (RoTel) and if you want to get fancy, stir in some cooked crumbled sausage. For a party, put it in a fondue pot or informally, serve it direct in the cooking pot with a hot pad set under it and set it on the coffee table. Served with a bag of chips.

I did have a grilled cheese/ velveeta sandwich within memory. The tomato soup was too sweet and the velveeta glue stuck to my mouth and neither was what I remembered from child-hood. Sorry.
 
I was born and raised in the heart of Wisconsin dairy country, so Velveeta, along with any Kraft Singles type things, weren't really foods sought out when I was growing up. We used to call these products "plastic cheese" when we would see them on store shelves.

That said, my mom wasn't above using Velveeta in the holiday green bean casserole, because it had good melting properties. She also used to make a zucchini dish called "Zia Casserole" that came (I believe) from a church cookbook. I always loved that dish, and haven't been able to find it again since. But as I recall, it included evaporated milk, Velveeta, zucchini, onion, and bread crumbs. Sort of a zucchini gratin in a cheese sauce. Yummy stuff. It was also one of the few veggie sides my little brother (Mr. I-Hate-Vegetables) would devour.

I have always thought that recipe would be wonderful remade with Parmesan and sharp Cheddar, but thinking about it is as close as I have ever come to to actually remaking it. You've just made me think it might be worth a go, though.
 
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Velveeta cheese doesn't require refrigeration, therefore, for my bomb shelter needs...that type of cheese product may come in handy one day.
 
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When the government used to give out surplus foods, that cheese in five pound blocks was one of the items. Did Kraft get the recipe from the government kitchens or was it the other way around. Same product.

When you are raising a house full of kids, it came in handy. School lunch sandwiches, mac and cheese, after school snacks. Now, not so much. So it never appears on my shopping list. And I doubt it ever will again.

Once the grandchildren came along, I would buy the English type cheese in the little jar/glass only for the container. (Also made by Kraft) Just the perfect size for little hands to hold. Not so crazy for the cheese inside. Grandkids are all grown, still have the glasses. Don't miss the cheese. Just another version of Velveeta.
 
The last time I had Velveeta was sometime in the '70's. :ermm: I didn't care for it.


Welcome to DC, Ashlie! Let us know if you do try a recipe for homemade. I've seen a few recipes out there in the past.
 
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I wonder if the OP will return.:ermm: Rock, my scuba students got a real thrill watching reef fish gobble up the "Whiz" from the can, on their first open water dives. I used to get the reef fish into a feeding frenzy with it and lay in wait for the predators, like grouper, to come for the reef fish and shoot them. Sorta like baiting deer with apples.
 
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When the government used to give out surplus foods, that cheese in five pound blocks was one of the items. Did Kraft get the recipe from the government kitchens or was it the other way around. Same product.

Government cheese in the mid-West (a friend was on WIC? program, I think that's what it was called) was definitely not Velveeta nor anything closely resembling it. It was 100% real cheese.
 
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