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FACT: The United States government once rented caves in Missouri to store its excess cheese purchases.
By Claire Maldarelli
The United States is the most prolific producer of cheese in the world. Seriously: We make three times as much per year as the first runner-up. Around 6.4 million metric tons, to be precise.
But at one point in our nation’s history, we may have taken cheese-making just a little too far. Enter government cheese, and the story of how the United States had to make the tough call to rent out caves as storage space because they bought too much of a good thing.
If you’ve never tried government cheese (I sadly have not), I have been told the product’s taste is a hard thing to forget: a hardy, dense version of the classic “American” cheese found in Kraft singles. In fact, I first stumbled upon the story of government cheese because I was on a hunt for the perfect ingredients for an ideal grilled cheese sandwich. I was hoping there was some cooking trick or cheese combo that I was unaware of. During my search, however, the same surprising opinion cropped up over and over again: Government cheese makes the best grilled cheese sandwich. I had to find out more.
The backstory of government cheese takes us…
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