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Government Cheese: Making America Grate Again
New Year’s Day, Simon Templar started a post “Blackeye Peas And Comfort Food”. There were 288 comments. Someone mentioned government cheese and I shoot my mouth off about someday doing a post about my experience making government cheese. As you may have realized my pen name is PHCheese which is a play on PhD. I acquired this moniker at a party on Bald Head Island, NC (alcohol was involved) where everyone except myself and my best friend were either MDs or PhDs or, in case of one fellow, both. My best friend was an owner of several car dealerships and probably had more money than everyone else combined. One of the more modest doctors (if there is such a thing) asked my friend a question on the economy. His answer was something like he just moves iron (cars) and he would demure to me because I had a PHCheese.
So I do not have a PHCheese. I have a BA in Political Science, Economics, and History. However, I did own a cheese business which, in part, made government cheese. This in no way makes me a cheese expert. I needed to understand and execute every phase of my company so please don’t hold me to the technical questions of cheese, farming, and cows etc. I hired people for the tough stuff.
First, a little history of government cheese and, with it, a little background on cows and farming. Cows give milk after giving birth. Their off spring are taken and the cow will continue to give milk for about a year. They are usually re-bred early in that time. In the old days (up until about 1940) this was done with the seasons, which meant that there was a glut of milk in late May and June that would drive prices down. As with all government programs, there were good intentions involved. The Commodity Credit Corporation was hatched to smooth-out supply and demand during the New Deal. It actually worked for a time: the CCC would buy the surplus and then sell it to the trade during short supply times. But after changes in animal husbandry and farming techniques, the milk supply became more constant and — with the growth of farmer co-ops — the government became the costumer-of-first-resort (instead of the last resort) for cheese. Mountains of surplus cheddar made in 40-lb. blocks were stored in warehouses and limestone mines all over the country, especially in Kansas City.
All of this cheese was inspected by the USDA prior to being purchased by the CCC; it was an excellent product, especially after being aged, some of it for four or five years. The CCC try to use-up these surpluses through school lunch program but, by 1980, that no longer kept up with purchases.
This is the beginning of what I call the dog chasing its tail. The CCC began giving the cheese to states who, in turn, gave it to the general public who, in turn, lowered demand in normal markets, thus causing the CCC to buy more surpluses. It is also where I got involved. I was one of two USDA-approved packaging plants in Pennsylvania at the time. The other plant either was not interested or didn’t know that PA had a let a bid to package 5 million lbs of 40-lb. cheddar in to five-lb. packages. At the same time, I also won a bid let by the USDA to package one million lbs. of cheddar to be sent to Egypt. Needless to say this, was huge for me at the time. I only had three months to do it all.
I got it done and took the considerable profits and bought equipment to process those same cheddar into 5-lb. process American cheese. This cheese also played a big part in the tail-chasing drama. Pallets of American cheese were dropped in some crazy places. Forget the phrase “process”: this was excellent product as well. First, I’ll explain what American cheese is and then explain how and with equipment is used. American cheese is basically just cooked cheddar cheese. To enable it to form back into a solid about 2 or 3 % of emulsifiers (sodium phosphate) are added, along with some salt. That is it.
So, why and how do you take perfectly good cheddar and make American out of it? Cheddar can be described as being alive. It starts life as a rubbery tasteless curd. As it ages, it takes on different characteristics, textures, and — more importantly — flavors. But here is the rub, time doesn’t stop the process and everyone has a different opinion what tastes good to them. So, different stages and ages and textures of cheddar are blended together so as to develop a consistent American cheese. The cooking stops the phases forever and also creates an indefinite self life as long as the packaging stays in intact. It actually does not really need refrigerated as long as the packaging keeps its integrity.
So, if you eyes haven’t glazed over now for the how. One thing I neglected to tell you is that cheddar also comes 500-lb. barrels. Yep 500 lbs., which is about 15% bigger than a 55 gal. drum. This is what we for the most part used to make American. I mentioned blending. First, we cut four 500 lb.-barrels into 25-lb. slabs by pushing them through wires using hydraulics. We had a two thousand-lb. capacity grinder that resembled what you might see at the butcher shop to make hamburger,except this was about as big as car and had a 100-hp electric motor. The slabs got mixed and ground at the same time and sent to the cooker, where the emulsifiers were added and salt and water to bring it to the required moisture content. We had a 1000 lb.-cooker that melted the cheddar using steam. We brought the temperature up to at least 168 degrees, or pasteurization temperature. The cooker had an auger that also mixed the blend. This was about a five-minute process.
All told, we averaged 10,000 lbs. an hour. The molten cheese then went into a heated surge tank with a 1500-lb. capacity. From there, it was pumped to a filling machine that measured 5 lbs. at a time and dropped it into a cardboard box, lined with a plastic pouch that self-sealed from the heat of the cheese. The boxes were synced with the filler on a conveyor, a lid was placed over the box, and six boxes were placed in a master box, finally, on a pallet sixty boxes, all told. This took sixteen people, many of whom could be eliminated with equipment I couldn’t afford. The pallets were taken to a blast cooler overnight to stop the cheese from continuing to cook in the pouch. If it didn’t cool quickly, it could discolor. For about five years, we proceed about 1.5 million lbs. of American cheese a month. Many times, it was shipped back to where the cheddar came from, the dog was still chasing its tail.
I hope this covers all you wanted to know ( probably some you didn’t) about Government Cheese. I can answer any questions in the comments. Remember I am not really a PHCheese, so take it easy on me.
Published in Culture
If I told you I would have to kill you.
Aged food and drink is an interesting business. Whiskey in particular has had a recent shortage, which means that the whiskey makers have probably been eating in to their stock to meet demand, which only means the good older stuff will continue to be in short supply for a long while.
Another thing is that I wish the FDA would get their hands out of is the cheese and milk regulation. American consumers should be able to eat and drink raw milk and cheese products if they want too. Sometimes I think many of the chronic health problems we have in the US that are not common in Europe is due to our draconian health food regulations.
I thought Government Cheese was just a song by The Rainmakers…
When I was is France the cheese was the best I had ever tasted. I was told that this was because it wasn’t pasteurized. What does pasteurizing do to milk / cheese flavor?
A classic right, @joeflaherty ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUZ_brLcAfE
I adamantly disagree about drinking raw milk. It is very dangerous especially for the transmission of TB. Did you know that about 1200 immigrants from the Mid East have come to the US. Ten of these people at dairy farms would cause serious problems. The risk reward ratio just doesn’t make sense to me.
Too funny.
My Dear Cheese,
Surely you know the evolutionary story of cheese. First, there were the herbavores. Then came the carnivores. Finally, nature produced the curdivores or “the cheese eaters”. Largest and able to down an entire wheel of cheese without even a trisket was the Curdasaurous Rex. We have recovered a fabulous specimen of the Curdasaurous Rex from the La Brea Fondue Pits. Obviously, the large curdivore had eaten a huge quantity of cheese and becoming sleepy had fallen in. Thus a perfect specimen has been preserved for us. Science has reconstructed its skeleton for display at the Wisconsin Natural History Museum of Cheese.
Regards,
Jim
It’s not to be taken literally. It’s for all people in the dairy product making business.
Blessed are the Greek.
The one you were going to order from Amazon that I did the post
France has wonderful cheese and more varieties than anywhere . Some of the cheese is pasteurized but not all. Milk has many bacteria in it probably 99% beneficial, it’s the 1% that is bad. For the most part Pasteurization kills everything. A cheese maker can the start with a blank slate and add back controlled bacteria and enxymes. Everything is a compromise. The dairy industry in Europe is much more controlled by the government than the US. Farm inspection is much more thorough in most of Europe and the milk supply is safer in my opinion. With safe raw milk you have a larger flavor base to work with.
I love it Jim
This is one of the most interesting things I’ve read lately.
This question always drives me nuts.
Think of it this way: Should cheese sauce qualify as “cheese”? It’s a mixture of cheese and other ingredients heated into a sauce.
Products like Velveeta, or Cheese Whiz, or Kraft Singles, are basically just cheese sauce that’s been chilled back down to room temperature.
Good analogy .
Is the FDA allowed to regulate food that doesn’t cross state borders?
I think it’s only food if the FDA says it is, so probably?
For cheese the answer is obvious. Cheese comes from cows. Cows pass gas into the wind. Wind crosses state lines. Therefore, the FDA can regulate cheese.
Did anyone catch his name?
In 35 years of being in the cheese business I heard from the FDA once and it was on a legitimate complaint by a competitor. I had labeled a low fat cheese correctly and had sold it for years however the company that printed the label at sometime moved a decimal point. I actually had a box of the correct bags and they were understanding with no legal problems. The USDA is another story. They are very involved. More to your question I don’t believe the Feds can regulate intrastate commerce but conducting my business intrastate was impossible.
Back in the 60s we used to buy raw milk from a neighbor’s bulk tank. I didn’t care so much whether my milk was raw or pasteurized, but Mom did, and I appreciated how healthy it is for people to defy the nanny state. It was worth the risk to medical health to have a healthy citizenry that didn’t easily obey the government.
I understand on philosophical basis what you believe. Many people eat raw oysters also and never have a problem. I had a friend that according to his doctor was thirty seconds away from dying after eating raw oysters. Milk is like bad apples, one farmer with bad milk will corrupt an entire tanker load of milk before it even gets to the dairy. I might be wrong but I think it is still legal for an individual to go to a farm and buy raw milk.
That’s what I figured. If it’s illegal to merely buy raw milk where you live (as opposed to transporting it across state lines) I wager that’s almost certainly due to state law, not federal law.
From the FDA’s web site:
Basically, they’re going to assume everything they regulate is interstate commerce. Good luck proving it’s not.
I don’t think milk would fall in the cosmetic category. I could see a local farm being intrastate easily.
It appears that they took the text from a response to a specific question and put in their FAQ under a more general question. While it’s clear from the context of the website that this approach isn’t limited to cosmetics, I thought the same thing in regard to Milk. I didn’t do an exhaustive search, but I didn’t find anything to suggest they even try to regulate the local consumption of raw milk. They advise against it, it won’t be graded, and it’s prohibited in the sample statutory language they publish for state and municipal use, but they don’t appear to prohibit it. They also keep a list of interstate milk shippers on their website. I assume that ain’t for nothin’.
my neck of the woods too!
Back in the day, we didn’t go to the farm when inspectors were likely to be around. There could have been bad repercussions for the farmer if we caused problems.
There are people who’ve tried to get around the prohibitions by renting out their cows. The idea is that the farmer doesn’t own the cow. You do, but he boards it for you, and milks it, and you can get milk from him. The feds have not looked kindly on it, but I’m not sure of the current status.
If you google for “raw milk raids” you can get information on how it all plays out in the U.S. and Canada.
As for the risks, there are young men who go to Iraq or other places where they get shot at or bombed. They risk their lives to preserve our freedom.
I never did that, but the least I can do is take some food risks to keep alive the habits of freedom in our country.
Hmmm? 1.5 million lbs. of American cheese a month X 12.5 cents per pound = $187,500 per month. Not bad.