Velveeta was developed in 1918 as a way to use the byproduct of cheesemaking, whey, and various cheeses (because it combined several cheeses). I don't know how much the formula has changed (probably quite a bit), but it was always marketed as a cheaper alternative to cheese.

It was sold to the Kraft Company in 1928, but I'm not sure how popular it was before the 1950's.

I think it was possibly Alton Brown, I saw suggesting that "melting cheese for dummies" (my words I think, not his) start with Velveeta. So start with a little Velveeta and add "real" cheese to it for mac and cheese, fondu, etc...

I've never bought Velveeta regularly, but I have used it once in a while (Velveeta and Pace Picante is my version of the puke dip).

With my salt taste changing, I'm betting it's far too salty for me now (it was already too salty for me the last time I had it several years ago).

I have no idea what V. is made of but I make a Velveeta Fudge at Christmas which everyone adores. I'd post the recipe but it's Food Porn.

VELVEETA - CHEESE - REGULAR

Ingredients: MILK, WATER, MILKFAT, WHEY, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, ALGINATE, SODIUM CITRATE, APOCAROTENAL (COLOR), ANNATTO (COLOR), ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE.

Hmm, not nearly as bad as I would have thought (not that I consider it a health food, now).

Even though I've outgrown the grilled Velveeta sandwiches with tomato soup that my mom made that a lot while we were growing up, sometimes I do give in and have this as my kids both like it a lot. Lately I prefer grilled "panini" sandwiches with some carved turkey and low fat provolone grilled.

YUMMY, i could live off Rotel and Velveeta dip. I do try to limit how often i use velveeta, I use to use couple times a week, now I cant even remember the last time

That sounds yummy

I never met a processed cheese I didn't like. In a box, wrapped in plastic, in a jar or in a can

Um, can you PM me this recipe? I am very curious

I never met a processed cheese I DID like. Many of them create a burning sensation on my tongue.
Velveeta - yuck
Cheez-Whiz - double yuck
American Cheese - plastic yuck
Besides the burning sensation, they have a bad taste and weird consistency. So it's not hard for me to avoid them.

Restaurants should have to warn you when their dishes are made with "cheese food" instead of cheese. I have ordered dishes that I couldn't/wouldn't eat after that first nasty bite.

I've been substituting velveeta in my dishes with cheddar cheese soup...which is probably just as unhealthy as velveeta, but I have to say its taken my au gratin potatoes to a new level of oooooh-so-good!

Funny thing is...my mom used it so much in her cooking (Velveeta) that it was always in the fridge. I remember thinking one day when I was about five that I liked the name Velveeta and thought I might name my first born daughter Velveeta. My daughter, Shelley, was very relieved when I told her this that I didn't name her after cheese product. Can you imagine...and then she'd have brothers names Provolone and Mozzarella!

Yes, but nothing says senseless carbs like a can of cheeze whiz and a sleeve of ritz crackers and its one of my favorite snacks I never have.

I've never had velveeta or cheeze whiz. Now I don't eat cheese anymore but I don't even miss it.

techwife - One of my former binge foods was ritz crackers and various cheeses, depending on my mood, usually a sharp cheddar.

LOL. Nevermind the cheese product. Velveeta as a girl's name sounds like something else. Something I *know* the schoolyard would pick up on.

I think the only junky cheese food I ever liked was Cheeto's, and they only sound good maybe once a year or less. I only like the skinnier crunchier ones, not the bigger fluffy ones. But it's been so long now, maybe I'm completely over them.

I never ate much cheese (fake or real) until my husband and I moved to the land of beer and cheese (Wisconsin) - though I still haven't had a beer here. I'm actually beer-phobic.

I'm not actually afraid of beer, I'm afraid of getting beer spilled on me. When I was little (starting maybe at age 7 or so), my uncle (if not an alcoholic, pretty darn close), at family gatherings, would love to ask me to get a beer for him (which my parents would make me do) and then he'd "accidentally" spill some on me when he opened it. I'd freak out, and change my clothes.

In college, I only went to one outdoor "kegger" (drinking diet Sprite the whole night) and I left immediately, when one of the kegs was spilled over and I got beer on my shoes, cute canvas lace flats (I threw away the shoes). I did go to a few college parties, but only if they were "inside" and I always drank diet soda unless there was hard liquor for mixed drinks.

Back to topic, hubby being a native Wisconsonite, considers Velveeta and low fat cheeses (except maybe part-skim Mozzarella) sacreligious. If it's not "real" cheese, he won't eat it, or so he says. I pointed out that the cheese "powder" he likes that comes on cheese puffs and that we bought to put on his popcorn (since he's not eating cheese puffs anymore), aren't "real" cheese.

He told me cheese powder didn't count because it wasn't a cheese, it was a seasoning.