I still have some of those tins from college. One has 39¢ stamped on the bottom.
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The variation of this “chili” I learned in Boston is “American Chop Suey,” ground beef with tomato sauce, onions, garlic, elbow macaroni, “parmesan” grated cheese from the green carton, if you are lucky some red and green peppers and some oregano or other “Italian” seasoning. If made with care and with a decent marinara and seasonings, it’s edible. Our son with limited diet due to food trauma likes it homemade. It’s all his!
I think my mom (born 1932) was making a homemade version of “hamburger helper” with some macaroni and tomato sauce added to stretch it out, and then when “chili” started showing up in Better Homes and Gardens magazine and in newspaper cooking columns, started adding the 1/2 tsp. of chili powder sawdust to be daring and au courant. About the same time our daring neighbors were trying that new-fangled dish lasagne.
This was in North Carolina, so Cincinnati chili was not in the picture and would have been even more daring than adding the 1/2 tsp. of chili powder sawdust. Never tried it myself, but it certainly seems to have more seasoning than anything my mom ever cooked.
I did see American cheese singles, usually yellow, added to both lasagne and my mom’s chili/hamburger helper back in the day, so this is possibly not as off-topic as it seems. In North Carolina, the American cheese was always yellow.
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Halloumi is fantastic, grilled or otherwise. Try it! I think you are in Boston (maybe I’m mistaken). Oleana used to have it on the menu; Sarma almost always has it in at least one dish.
My mom made “American Chop Suey” too. No cheese though.
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Only by 3000 miles or so. Sacramento. 
I don’t know what they sold for, but I bought the whole set of their spiral bound recipe booklets for 10¢ a piece a dozen years ago at a library book sale. I retained only a dozen or so. A deal.
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The bun drape is a new one on me.
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I have lived into my dotage totally ignorant of the permutations of American cheese - probably because I grew up really disliking American cheese on white bread grilled cheese. I finally experienced grilled Swiss on rye and was a convert. However, when I was in the grocery this morning I checked out the various types of American cheese - the fanciest was Boars Head pasteurized process, yellow.
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Me too! The best I ever had and still is was at the River Ranch Resort restaurant in 1975. I can still taste that oh so savory au jus.
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Sorry! I
Booberry cereal is different, and I will die on that sword. It even looks different, and the puffs are completely different texture from what I remember. But yes, there are lots of foods that I’ve outgrown.
I’m not a cheese person at all, but I’ve always opted for the white AC over the yellow of I have that choice. Was also told less coloring = better. When that’s not an option, I don’t sweat yellow cheese. In all honesty they taste the same to me, unless they are different brands.
I would like to clarify that the USA does not have an official language, although English is predominantly spoken.
To stay on topic, cheese does not go on my burger.
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Fine, a MUTUAL language. The US is still one country, whereas The Europe is not. But I’m done with this OT drift, as it’s almost as pointless as the OT.
A burger without cheese = sadness.
Not familiar with Booberry cereal. I’m pretty much a cornflakes guy myself. Boring. Anyway I’m sure some things have changed, but I still think many/most such perceptions are likely tastebud driven, not recipe change driven.
AFAIK the coloring agent used to make cheese yellow, including high end cheese not just process cheese, is annatto, which is a pretty natural thing. I believe it’s also used to make butter more consistently yellow over the seasons.
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Not pointless at all to most of us.
There are BIG geographic and cultural differences in the USA.
Some even involve cheese.
This book is now 40 years old but still a good reference.
It. Is. One. Country. Under. One. Government. With. One. Common. Language.
Auf Wiedersehen 
You are POed because those of us who have spent our lives here disagree with you? That’s fine but telling us we don’t know what we’re saying is
Hilarious 
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Not pissed off. It’s just a moot point to compare the US with Europe, as if Europe were one country as well. But I’ve started to realize it’s too difficult a concept for most here to grasp, so I’ll leave you to it 
I’ve also lived in this country for several decades, so I have a pretty good idea of the geography - sociological, socio-economic, cultural, etc.
I’m a little surprised this seems to be so very hard to understand.
ETA: @moderators - perhaps we should put ALL European countries and regions under one solid Europe category, since they’re basically all the same.
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“This is America, a hamburger kingdom, one cuisine, under God, indivisible, with pickles and potato chips for all.” . . . ‘American’ it is not a fact, it is an act, of faith, a matter of lines on a map and words on paper, . . . “America is a conspiracy to make you happy.”
Quotes courtesy of John Updike’s “How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time.” A very short story (and one of my faves of his TBH).
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