Yuck.

This morning the Homestead was treated to a lovely brunch of vegetable omelettes, hash browns and locker bacon. Yum!

The "yuck" part of this? Himself routinely uses condensed cheddar cheese soup as a sauce for the omelettes and hash browns. In the past, this worked very nicely as the stuff was actually cheese.

Guess what? It isn't cheese, anymore. Far as I could tell from the ingredient list, there isn't much actual cheddar cheese in it. Please follow along as I enumerate some, but not all, of the ingredients:

water
cheddar flavor base
enzyme modified cheese
modified food starch
canola oil
sodium phosphate
salt
xanthan gum
apocarotenal
wheat flour
modified food starch
margarine
vegetable oil
dehydrated dairy blend
cheddar cheese*
butter
cheese culture enzymes

"cheddar flavor base?"** "enzyme modified cheese?" Ah, yes, the old "labelled as cheese but it isn't cheese" ploy. Both of those ingredients are not related in any meaningful way to cheese. They are chemically produced ingredients that masquerade as the flavor of cheddar. They aren't cheddar. They aren't cheese. Personally, I think that's pretty obvious because they sure don't taste like cheese.

I do know what "modified food starch" is. It's a sneaky way of slipping free glutamic acids into the food. Translate that as the same damned thing as monosodium glutamate. The only reason the stuff is necessary is because the contents of the can have been over-processed and over-chemicalled to the point that it would taste worse than school paste without it. Edible nonfood.***

There are some days when just reading the labels of foodstuffs turns my stomach.

Next round of grocery shopping it's Real Cheddar Cheese in my cart. Cheese sauce is quick, easy and has about 3 main ingredients: shredded real cheese, butter, milk. Plus salt and pepper or whatall spices.

I have no idea how to get a handle on this whole situation but it's pissing me off. We can't buy raw milk but it's ok to eat unnatural chemicals? Organic almonds are illegal to grow but irradiated and GM ones are fine? Politicians and special interests need to get their heads out of their butts. I doubt that will happen so we're all on our own.


Eileen: I can't find a sure definition for "dairy blend." It would seem to be some type of enzyme- or chemically-modified whey product. Did come up with this little bit of slightly unsettling information...

(a) Can you sanitize with cow water?

Yes. Cow water that meets all the requirements of Appendix D., Part V., Level I
of the DMO, may be used for all potable water uses in the plant.

(b) Can you flush pasteurized milk lines or push pasteurized product with cow
water?

Yes. However, cow water, if used to push pasteurized milk or milk products,
must initially comply with Appendix D., Part V., Level I of the DMO and then
must comply with the requirements of Item 15p(B)2.


I'm not sure I want to look up the definition of "cow water." Really.




* oooooooh! Wallace and Gromit, rejoice! I surmise the company had to stick in a miniscule amount of actual cheese or they would have to label their can "cheddar flavored soup." Or more descriptive, "canned chemicals that don't taste like any actual earthy food." Or "a yellow, gelatinous mass of fake flavors and stuff that will kill you." Or something like that.
** This stuff is........ cheese flavoring and butter! Gawd save the Queen.
*** There are lots of things that are edible that aren't food. Dirt, for instance. Kids eat bugs, but I don't consider them to be food. I suppose dog shit would be considered edible, too, but that doesn't mean I want to eat it any more than I want to eat edible nonfood. blargh....