good morning
good morning
so how is lent going?
no meat today
bummer
my tuna casserole is pretty good
what's in it?
tuna, noodles, mushroom soup, peas, and velveeta
velveeta?
I was raise on it
wasn't it cheap years ago
we couldn't afford kraft
is velveeta really food?
processed milk
how did it happen?
the government subsidized milk and the farmers produced so much they didn't know what to do with it
so?
somebody had to invent a cheese that did not require refrigeration to use all that milk
and they did?
emil frey did and it was cheap enough for my family
only because it was subsidized?
only because it was subsidized
I hope lent goes well. I think it's a good tradition.
But your story of Velveeta cheese? No. That's not really how or why Velveeta was started, or how or why processed cheese was started. You have a bunch of different stories going on that are kind of true, but they're Frankensteined together into one big story that's not true.
Processed cheese originated in Switzerland. They think it had originally had something to do wth fondue, but it really became a commercial thing around 1910, because the cheesemakers wanted longer shelf life so they could ship cheese to warm places. Kraft was doing something similar with processed cheese in the states at around the same time, and he patented his first processed cheese in 1916.
Velveeta cheese started separately, also around the same time. Velveeta was invented by Emil Frey around 1915 as a way for the cheese company he worked for, Monroe Cheese, to salvage broken cheese wheels and cheese scraps so there wasn't any waste. Basically, what hotdogs are to meat, Velveeta was to cheese.
Velveeta became it's own company in the early 1920's. Then, Kraft bought Velveeta in the late 20's. Through the years, Kraft kept developing more and more advanced ways to process cheese. Kraft pretty much championed taking the cheese out of cheese.
Government cheese was originally for soldiers in WW2. Then it was used in public schools. Then it was a sort of socialized food for the poor. It did have to do with government milk subsidy, and it was processed, but Velveeta and processed cheese had already been around for a long time before government cheese.
My dad tells me about how sometimes he'd catch my grandpa (his dad) telling me totally made up stories... Like my dad would walk into the room and my grandpa would be teaching me the etymologies of words that were just nonsense, or maybe telling me made-up stories about the history of airplanes or space travel or Velveeta cheese.
Anyway, I hope lent goes well. I'm sure it really helps you to appreciate the foods you're giving up, and that you'll enjoy them more than ever when lent is finished.
