Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler of Switzerland in 1911 experimented with their native Emmentaler cheese to see if they could increase the shelf life of cheese for export purposes. While Kraft was the first to receive a US patent for processed cheese, he wasnвЂ™t the first to invent it. The next year, in 1915, they changed the cheese game. That same year, they opened their first cheese factory in Stockton, Illinois.

Within five years, KraftвЂ™s business was successful enough that four of his brothers from Canada were able to come to Chicago and help James build his new cheese company. His reasoning was that he was doing the hard part for them- finding and buying the cheese and then bringing it directly to the shop owners- and that was worth the markup. He would then sell it to the shop owners around town at marked up prices. For the next few months before dawn every day, he would take Paddy and the carriage down to the wholesale market on ChicagoвЂ™s Water Street and buy blocks of cheese in bulk. Using his meager remaining funds, he bought a horse (named Paddy) and a carriage. Either way, Kraft was left stranded in Chicago, reportedly with little money (perhaps lending credence to the вЂњwent underвЂќ theory) and no job. After moving to Chicago, the company either went under or the heads of the company pushed Kraft out (records are conflicting as to what exactly happened there). He quickly rose up through the company and was invited to move to Chicago to run the cheese companyвЂ™s branch there. But most important to this story, while there, he eventually invested in a small cheese company. In fact, there seems to be no real record at all of why Kraft went to Buffalo. Why he chose Buffalo (well over two hundred miles from his home in Ontario) over Detroit (under fifty miles away from Stevenson) isnвЂ™t known. (Where a little over a half century later another common Super Bowl snack, the Buffalo Wing, was born. When he was 28 years old, he immigrated to the United States, where he first chose Buffalo, New York to settle in. Kraft was born in 1874 in Stevensville, Ontario on a dairy farm.

But what is Cheez Whiz? Why did get it invented? And is there really cheese in Cheez Whiz? asks: Is there any real cheese in cheese whiz?ДЄs America gets ready for their upcoming Super Bowl parties (or Royal Rumble party, if thatвЂ™s your thing), Cheez Whiz вЂ“ the yellowish-orange, gooey, bland tasting вЂњcheeseвЂќ product вЂ“ will surely make an appearance at some of them.

Cheez whiz jar