<P> After the official invention of processed cheese in 1911, and its subsequent popularization by James L. Kraft in the late - 1910s and the 1920s, the term "American cheese" rapidly began to refer to this variety, instead of the traditional but more expensive cheddars also made and sold in the US . The latter had already begun to be produced on an industrial scale in the 1890s, leading to the term "factory cheese". </P> <P> The Oxford English Dictionary defines American cheese as a "cheese of cheddar type, made in the U.S." and lists 1804 as the first known usage of "American cheese", occurring in the Frankfort, Kentucky newspaper Guardian of Freedom . The next usage given is in 1860 by Charles Dickens in his series The Noncommercial Traversal . </P> <P> The English method of producing cheddar cheese was known in America as "the Joseph Harding Method". </P> <P> Even though the term "American cheese" has a legal definition in the United States as a type of pasteurized processed cheese, and is actually something different, products called "cheese product" are by no means identical . Depending on the additives and the amounts of milk fat, oil, and water added during emulsification, the taste and texture of solid American cheese varies . As a result, some varieties (e.g., "American cheese" and "American processed cheese") bear remarkable similarity to traditional / unprocessed cheeses, while other varieties (e.g., "American cheese food" and "American cheese product") are much more like Velveeta or Cheez Whiz . </P>

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