What are you eating?

[derspiess]

Jalapeno Salsa sunflower seeds.  Picked up the habit this spring when baseball season started and can't quit it.

[Admiral Yi]

Jalapeno Salsa sunflower seeds.  Picked up the habit this spring when baseball season started and can't quit it.

Would an intervention help?

[Caliga]

Finally had a Five Guys burger, at the Atlanta airport.

Nice enough burger, but did not live up to the hype.  And even discounting the airport premium that's one damn pricey burger.

It has a lot of really good competition now.  Shake Shack, Smashburger, The Habit, and Epic Burger all come to mind.

Actually at Atlanta airport I'd take The Varsity over Five Guys.

[Eddie Teach]

I was very disappointed with the varsity last time I ate at Hartsfield.

[DontSayBanana]

Finally had a Five Guys burger, at the Atlanta airport.

Nice enough burger, but did not live up to the hype.  And even discounting the airport premium that's one damn pricey burger.

It has a lot of really good competition now.  Shake Shack, Smashburger, The Habit, and Epic Burger all come to mind.

Actually at Atlanta airport I'd take The Varsity over Five Guys.

Wasn't impressed with Smashburger (about the same as Five Guys, actually), but I'd take Shake Shack over either one any day. Both Five Guys and Smashburger were just tiny, flavorless burgers that were actually dripping with grease. Oh, and Five Guys' fries are DEFINITELY not worth the hype.

[Eddie Teach]

Five Guys isn't that expensive, really. Maybe a buck or two more than the priciest selections at BK or McDonald's. Now Red Robin, they'll charge 15 bucks.

[merithyn]

Had the best sandwich for lunch today. This little rinky-dink coffee shop a couple of blocks from the office. Stopped in on a lark. Crisp hot buttery croissant, ham, tomatoes, lettuce, American cheese, mustard. Finished it off with a berry smoothie with no added sugar.

[Eddie Teach]

Had the best sandwich for lunch today. ... American cheese,

[Ed Anger]

Ate the 2 buck fish and fries at Long Dong Silver. Fries were mediocre as usual.

[derspiess]

Jalapeno Salsa sunflower seeds.  Picked up the habit this spring when baseball season started and can't quit it.

Would an intervention help?

Yeah, throw one together.  We can hit a few bars afterward.

[Liep]

Had the best sandwich for lunch today. ... American cheese,

I always assumed that it's not actually cheese when people say American cheese. Kind of like 'I can't believe it's not butter'.

[garbon]

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/07/whats-really-in-american-cheese.html

Let's get one thing straight. When I say American cheese, I am referring specifically to process American cheese. The kind that comes either in individual slices from the refrigerated dairy case or sliced off of a rectangular block at the deli counter. There are many incredible cheeses produced in America—some of the finest in the world, like Humboldt Fog, Moses Sleeper, and Bent River. They may be great cheeses that are American, but they are not "American cheese."

Let's get another thing straight. All cheese is processed. All of it. It is a man-made product that does not exist in nature. Even the simplest cheese, like halloumi, is made by treating milk (whether from a cow, a sheep, a goat, or even a human) with rennet (an enzyme typically taken from the stomach lining of an unweaned calf, or, increasingly, vegetable-based enzymes with similar properties), draining the resulting curds, and pressing them together. More complex cheeses go through further steps of processing. Mozzarella and queso Oaxaca are kneaded and stretched, for instance. Gruyère and Comté are washed with a bacteria-infested brine called morge.

Most cheeses are inoculated with bacteria and allowed to ferment and age, during which time they develop flavor and rinds and lose moisture.

Heating, curdling, pressing, inoculating, aging...those are all processes.

Where American cheese (or "Pasteurized Process American Cheese," as the FDA likes to call it*) differs is that once the cheese is made (and yes, American cheese starts with real, honest-to-goodness cheese), it is blended with a few other ingredients to alter its texture and flavor. The exact details of these subsequent processes are what determines the labeling on the package, and those can be as simple as blending it with another cheese or as complex as melting it with additional whey, milk proteins, and emulsifying salts. This is what allows American cheese to melt without breaking or turning greasy the way a traditional cheese does. (You can read more about the science of melting cheese in this excerpt from my book.)

* Oddly, one of the USDA stipulations for process American cheese destined for use in government programs is that none of the ingredients shall have previously been property of the government, meaning that the phrase "government cheese" does not actually apply to government cheese...until it becomes government cheese.

The process itself was invented in Switzerland, in an effort to reduce cheese waste; scraps from various batches of cheese could be melted together and formed into a new, delicious product. In 1916, Canadian-American entrepreneur and cheese salesman James Kraft perfected the technique in the US, patented it, and started selling the very first process American cheese. It soon became immensely popular due to its long shelf life and easy shipping.

Cheese products have since proliferated into the vast diaspora that populates the refrigerated cases of your supermarket, and labeling laws do only a cursory job of keeping them all in order. Here's what you might see.

[derspiess]

I've tried practically everything, and nothing works better on a cheeseburger than American cheese.

[Gups]

I've tried practically everything, and nothing works better on a cheeseburger than American cheese.

I agree, generally. American cheese is perfect for the texture of a burger. Its also so bland that it doesn't interfere with the flavour of the meat which is surely the most important thing in a decent burger.

[DontSayBanana]

Five Guys isn't that expensive, really. Maybe a buck or two more than the priciest selections at BK or McDonald's. Now Red Robin, they'll charge 15 bucks.

Yeah, that soured me right off the bat. The fact that it's pricier than the most expensive megachain burger but only about equivalent to a BK Whopper or a McDonald's Quarter Pounder? Pass.

Red Robin isn't really a fair comparison, since it's a burger chain, but not a fast food burger chain. And hey, neither McDonald's nor Burger King gave me a free burger for my birthday, let alone a MOTHERFUCKING BURGER TOPPED WITH CHILI.