Why doesn’t cheese melt anymore?

There was a TV programme recently which showed that many product recipes have been changed to fool people into thinking they are the same as before whereas the manufacturers are actually cost-cutting by using fewer or cheaper ingredients. One example was some cheesy biscuits which come in a packet. The amount of cheese had been reduced considerably.

Just searched for this thread, I knew I had seen about cheese not melting.

Agree entirely with OP, have just made a fish pie and grated some Extra Mature Cathedral City on top, but I am convinced it won’t melt when I cook it, it will just be blobs.

Will have to try other makes, but DH does like a really strong cheese.

We went to Burger King today , don't ask me why, they put cheese on every dish including the chips, it was disgusting. As for ordering via a screen, I think I'm too old for fast food joints now.

I used Tesco mature 30% less fat chedder, I grated it myself.

I recently seen something about mixing a beaten egg with the cheese , I tried it twice now and both times lovely fluffy cheese mixture, I put it into light toasted bread, then into the Ninja on a grill setting for 10 mins but probably work under the grill as well.

I found Cathedral Light forms a skin when doing cheese on toast. It's definitely not the same. I just slice it, it sort of melts but there's this skin on the top. It's not the same.when making cheese straws either. They stick to the greaseproof paper. Gonna go back to full fat, or a different brand.

I tried mixing a little milk with pre grated cheese last night and it worked well, thanks shirlz

Primrose53

Here you go, fake cheese

metro.co.uk/2016/10/04/one-in-four-takeaway-pizzas-are-topped-with-fake-cheese-6169666/

Thank you Primrose53’. The conniving tricks they’ll go to to save ££s. A complete cheat fest! Even using turkey instead of ham by colouring and shaping it for pizza topping. I bet the menu said ham. I can’t honestly say I’m that shocked but how disappointing. This exposure was about places in Warwickshire where I live too. About 15 years ago, you couldn’t go to an Indian restaurant anywhere locally and further within Warwickshire, without being given ‘spongy’ chicken. That’s all I can call it, tasteless spongy substance. This scam lasted about a year then they all went back to regular chicken. Each and every establishment blamed their ‘supplier’ 😏.

I have just read this however:

If you melt cheese cold, it may cause it to melt slowly or unevenly. Let your cheese sit out until it comes to room temperature before you try to melt it. Most cheese will come to room temperature in about 20 to 30 minutes

I do always take cheese out of the fridge ahead of use...
Are newer fridges set automatically colder?

What do we think is going on?
Any "mat science" graduates?

I haven't seen this but coincidentally my daughter asked me yesterday if I'd had this problem.
Hers was with a supermarket own brand cheese.

I only buy organic dairy products ... it could be a dietary issue for the cows or it could be a processing issue... ?

Now I want to know why!!!

Here you go, fake cheese

metro.co.uk/2016/10/04/one-in-four-takeaway-pizzas-are-topped-with-fake-cheese-6169666/

I remember that, Primrose

There was a prog on a couple of years ago about cheese that doesn’t even taste like cheese. It looks like cheese and is much cheaper and lots of pizza and burger places were using it. We had pizzas around that time from the pizza shop and they looked well covered in cheese but you could not taste it at all.
I can’t remember what they called it but will try and find out.

I think it’s to do with what the cows are fed. Some butters never seems to soften either.

AreWeThereYet

We use Cathedral Extra Mature and find the same thing. I'll have to give some of the others a try. I find that if you wrap it in greaseproof then foil it doesn't get wet or go mouldy.

Yes, I normally wrap my cheddar in baking parchment but it doesn’t keep as it used to. Maybe we should eat it faster!

I sliced some Tesco medium Creamfields cheese today and put it on lightly toasted bread done in my toaster. I then put it in my air fryer at 190 for about 4 mins and it was perfect and quite stringy when I halved the toast. Delicious.

I've found recently that Asda Cheshire cheese melts really well. It is a big block and very reasonably priced and has more flavour than other cheshires IMO

red1

i remember going on a nutrition course and the tutor talked about how the slimy mess of cheese stays like that as it travels through your system, i now do not eat cheese.

If it did that it would come out the other end looking exactly the same!

If you are lactose intolerant you could, however, have problems with cheese and other dairy foods.

I have not noticed this. I suspect a lower fat content cheese may not get gooey? I do know pre-shredded packaged cheeses are tossed in flour or cornstarch (blend) that may prevent the goo factor. Shred your own off a block.

We use Cathedral Extra Mature and find the same thing. I'll have to give some of the others a try. I find that if you wrap it in greaseproof then foil it doesn't get wet or go mouldy.

Aldi mild cheddar melts and hoes brown.

Good tip thank you Nannashirlz, will try that. You are so right on the storage of Cathedral city cc, it’s definitely going a bit wet soon after opening. Time for a change! I look forward to going through the various ones noted above.

The cheese I buy cheese from the Fromagerie is good and full of flavour and cooks/ melts beautifully. However, supermarket processed ones even in France, have an emulsifying agent added so as not to separate when melted and have a longer shelf life.

My advice would be add a little milk to your cheese when I was a chef everyone loved the way I did it and couldn’t never work it out how I did it. But my grandad taught me to add a drop of milk it really does make a big difference. You will get the look you after and it doesn’t affect the taste.

I’ve had problems too when I grated cheddar on top of the children’s pizzas when they were a bit short of topping. I use the block as the grated cheese definitely has some sort of flour coating. I used to love the Cathedral City cheese but find it goes sticky/slimy when I store it now, even if I wrap it in paper. The more traditional cheddars store better I think.