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Photo by Laura Murray
culture


THE AMERICAN CHEESE I GREW UP EATING (AND HAVEN'T STOPPED SINCE)

Forget everything you know about plastic-wrapped American cheese. This is the
good stuff.

By Alyse Whitney

March 9, 2017
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Sometimes you need a break from the craziness of this modern age, which is why
we're celebrating nostalgic foods this week at BonAppetit.com.

I have a crisper drawer dedicated to cheese and have spent a large chunk of my
savings at Murray's Cheese in NYC, but my all-time favorite cheese isn't
fancy—it's American. I'm not talking about Kraft Singles, though (no disrespect
to the OG), but rather a lesser-known melty American cheese: Cooper.

I stumbled upon Cooper by accident in high school. I was perusing the deli
counter at Wegmans—shout-out to the best grocery store in the world—and the odd
rectangular packaging caught my eye. It had a swoosh of a logo that looked like
WordArt circa 1999. My family was a loyal Land O'Lakes white American cheese
household, but this didn't look too different. It was in a massive block of
cheese, ready to be sliced by the deli guy, and I ordered a ¼ lb. to be safe.
The flavor was completely different from any American cheese I'd had before. It
had the sharpness of a cheddar and a hint of salty Parmesan. Not to mention it
was impossibly creamy. It seemed to melt on my tongue, and I craved it again the
moment I was done eating it.




What to look for behind the deli counter.

Photo by Laura Murray

According to Kiah Simon, Cooper's associate brand manager, cheddar is the main
component to develop this "sharp American" cheese, and it's "hand-selected and
aged for between 100 to 180 days." There are extra ingredients to give Cooper
its signature sharpness, but Simon says that special formula is a secret recipe
they've been using for decades. Cooper was started by I.C. Cooper, a banker who
decided to go into cheesemaking in Theresa, NY, in 1890. These days the parent
company, Schreiber Foods, operates out of Green Bay, WI. Fun fact from the
Cooper website: "Process deli cheese is formed by filling hot cheese into the
package and then cooling it." Would watch soothing videos of that before I go to
sleep, TBH.

WATCH



Trying Everything on the Menu at NYC’s Most Famous Burger Restaurant (Ft Brad
Leone)






Prepare for melting.

Photo by Laura Murray

Cooper was a staple in my lunchbox turkey sandwiches as a kid, but it is best
used in grilled cheese. It melts better than any cheese I've cooked with, but
doesn't have that odd aftertaste of plastic that can come with wrapped slices. I
like to get it a little thicker-cut—a 3 or 4 on a deli slicer—since thinner
slices tend to tear. To prevent them all sticking together, use parchment paper
to separate slices if your deli gives you everything in one big stack. The
Wegmans deli very neatly laid three slices across a thin plastic sheet and
separated each layer of slices with another sheet.



THAT CHEESE PULL, THOUGH.

Photo by Laura Murray



For my ideal grilled cheese, I butter ½-inch slices of Pullman bread, layer on
three or four slices (depending on how decadent I feel) of thickish slices of
Cooper, and put it in a nonstick pan on low heat. When we shot the photos for
this story, I used a cast-iron and they came out spectacularly crisp. But you
need to keep a close eye because cast iron heats so fast that you might
accidentally burn it without realizing. You can press the sandwiches down with a
spatula or a heavy lid, but Cooper melts well without any coaxing. When you cut
the sandwich, the cheese is so molten that it spills out of every crack. Heaven.



My eating habits have changed a lot since I was a kid, but when I'm seeking
comfort, I mix some Cooper into my stovetop mac and cheese, melt some in my
morning eggs, top burgers with a few slices, or make a grilled cheese. I've also
managed to convert some hoity-toity New York friends and a few test kitchen
editors to the Church of Cooper Cheese. Luckily the Cooper site has a product
locator so you can find how close you are to one of the best American cheeses in
the world. I have a mile-and-a-half trek ahead of me, but sometimes love makes
you do crazy things.


JUST ADD COOPER AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY:





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