What cheese is in a slim jim beef and cheese stick

[2much]

I googled and could find nothing. I love the cheese in slimjim beef and cheese sticks and also jack links. However I coiuld care less for the beef. I love this cheese and really would like to know what it is so I could buy just it or even make my own. Can anyone help?

[mikekchar]

I don't live in the US, so haven't tried this, but from the pictures it looks like a kind of processed cheese stick.  A review for it commented: "Orange Floppy Crayon That Makes You Want to Re-Evaluate Your Life and the Horrible Decisions You've  Made".

But you like what you like :-)  Actually, here in Japan, there are a lot of products that seem similar because people really enjoy that super smooth texture and mild taste.  I once went to a restaurant and noticed that they had a cheese plate.  I asked what was on the cheese plate: cream cheese and processed cheese.  That's how popular that kind of thing is in Japan!  So you have lots of company :-)

Ah... I found the ingredient list: "Pasteurized Process Cheddar Cheese Food Stick: Pasteurized Process Cheddar Cheese Food (Cultured Pasteurized Milk, Water, Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Natural Flavoring, Sorbic Acid [Preservative[, Color (Paprika And Turmeric Extract], Enzymes). CONTAINS: MILK, SOY."

I was curious about what the sodium phosphate was used for (especially in amounts greater than salt!) and a quick google search gave me this patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5466477

From the patent (which is incredibly well written -- why, oh why can't we have patents like this all the time!): "Process cheese is prepared by heating hard cheese and/or soft cheese in a mixture with certain emulsifying agents in a melting process to a temperature above about 80° C. During this melting process, the insoluble starting cheeses are converted into liquid by means of the emulsifying agents."   They later go on to explain that "certain emulsifying agents" "...typically involve the addition of the sodium phosphate...".

Furthermore: "The principles of process cheese production are well known and typically involve adding the emulsifying agents (sodium phosphates) in either a blending stage where the natural cheese is ground up, or in a cooking stage where the ground natural cheese composition is heated by steam in an auger to produce a homogeneous liquid blend."  and "Importantly, if too much emulsifying agent is added to the process cheese, the cheese will not melt during processing and a hard brick of cheese will form. In contrast, if too little emulsifying agent is added, the cheese will oil off and will not homogenize. Furthermore, by U.S. Government regulations, no more than 3% by weight of the final dairy product can comprise phosphates."

So basically, you  take a base cheese (and possibly other ingredients), grind it up, mix it with sodium phosphate, heat it up to 80 C (176 F), pour the resulting homogenised liquid into a mould and let it cool until it sets.

In another thread, someone was asking how to make something like Velveeta and it turns out that you can make it by taking some cheese curds and butter and emulsify it with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).  So, I wonder (given the information above) if you could make a process cheese in a similar way, but omit the butter and increase the amount of baking soda in order to get a harder product.  I couldn't find the youtube video the other person linked to, but here is a web page that basically explains the process: http://www.becauseofcourseyouhave.com/blog/2016/8/28/homemade-raw-milk-velveeta-and-ricotta

Anyway, probably not so many people on this forum are interested in this kind of cheese, but I'd be super happy to hear back from you if you manage to figure out how to make it.  Experimenting in the kitchen is fun -- it allows you to be a mad scientist    It will probably take a lot of experimentation, but if you don't mind a new hobby, it might be pretty cool.  Good luck!

Edit: On reflection.... I wonder if the sodium bicarbonate in the "Velveeta" recipe is actually just increasing the pH to the point where the cheese becomes liquid (like what happens in a bloomy rind cheese when ammonia starts being produced)....  So my idea may not work at all.  You may need to actually get your hands on sodium phosphate.  Be very careful if you do, though, because there is some toxicity at high levels (according to Wikipedia).  If you just want to eat a natural cheese with a similar flavour, I'd bet Colby is close...

[Curdlessness]

Sounds like GortKlaatu's Hideously Orange Rat Trap #5 would absolutely fit the bill here...

Thread: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,17088.msg130489.html#msg130489

HTH.