What on earth is in a cheese soufflé?
When you bite into your cheese soufflé (and don’t burn your tongue), you taste cheese. But some soufflés contain only three percent real cheese! So what on earth is between those fried flaps? Thankfully, Keuringsdienst van Waarde found out.
A cheese soufflé doesn’t contain Gouda, Emmenthaler or delicious Edam, but processed cheese. It’s made from the leftovers of the cheese factory: all the cheeses that fail because they’re the wrong shape, have cracked or have started to grow mold are sent to a factory that melts them down and adds some water, melting salt and emulsifier. Processed cheese looks suspiciously similar to spreadable cheese, and not at all like a slice or chunk from the cheesemonger, but okay, at least it’s made from cheese.
Science fiction soufflé
So that processed cheese goes into the soufflé. But in small quantities: some cheese soufflés contain only three percent cheese, the Keuringsdienst discovered. What’s the rest? That’s analogue cheese. It sounds like science fiction, because it’s cheese made without dairy, from plant-based ingredients such as palm oil. Add some salt, coloring and flavorings, and it starts to look a little like cheese. Even if you’ve never put ‘analogue cheese’ on your shopping list, you’ve probably eaten it at some point. Those bright yellow slices of melting stuff on your hamburger, the strings on your pizza, the creamy layer in a ready-made lasagna: all fake cheese.
Not on the list
Analogue cheese never appears in the ingredient list on the packaging. Everything it’s made from (palm oil, salt, flavorings) does, but try recognizing analogue cheese in that. So next time at the snack bar: a portion of fries with an analogue cheese soufflé, please. Luckily, they don’t taste any worse for it.
Also read:
- Hell yes! McDonalds is launching mini cheese soufflés
- Cheese according to your zodiac sign
- 7 hilarious things you’ll want if you really love cheese
