American Cheese

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy writer Bill Oakley (The Simpsons, ‘Steamed Hams Society’) for a look at why American cheese is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• Steamed Hams Society on Patreon
• Bill Oakley on Instagram
• “Steamed Hams” segment from The Simpsons
• Space: 1969 by Bill Oakley (Audible Originals)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• “What Is American Cheese, Anyway?” by J. Kenji López-Alt (Serious Eats)
• The Science Of Cheese by Michael H. Tunick
• Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and Its Place in Western Civilization by Paul S. Kindstedt
• We’re stuffing our faces with cheese more than ever before (Mashable)
• How Real Cheese Made Its Comeback (The Atlantic)
• How Salty-Velvety Provel Cheese Became a St. Louis Icon (Bon Appetit)
• Reddit r/askhistorians post: “Were there any traditional native american/new world cheeses? In what parts of the New World were different cheeses found? Or were they tragically cheeseless?” — this is where Alex found one story about “llama queso”.
• The Bison Went Unmilked (Willamette Week)
• The Untold Truth Of White Castle (Mashed)
• In 1938, the NY Times Wrote About a Weird New Food: The Cheeseburger (Smithsonian)
• Chrissy Teigen’s trick for perfectly reheating McDonald’s cheeseburgers might be the only hangover cure you’ll ever need (Business Insider) — note: Bill was right that a glamorous celeb is doing this, and the celeb is Chrissy Teigen.
• Should we mourn the death of American cheese? 8 experts weigh in. (Vox.com)
• 99% Invisible: “It’s A Small Aisle After All”
• Cochinita Pibil (Yucatán-Style Barbecued Pork) Recipe (Serious Eats)

Picture of annatto seeds:

Growth over time of U.S. factory cheese, vs. farm cheese: