The Cheesy Secret Behind The Capital’s Top Burgers

You’ve got everything for burger night sorted – patties, sauces, tomatoes, pickles, buns – but one thing remains to be found: the cheese.

The cheese you use doesn’t just make or break a cheeseburger, it's wholly responsible for defining the kind of burger that lands on your plate. Blue cheese, edam, gouda, and the like can all result in a tasty burger, but why not keep it simple and classic with good ol' American cheese?

But American cheese is mostly processed, you lament, making the quality less than desirable. To that we say, here’s the rub – everything that’s processed isn’t bad. In fact, when it comes to American cheese, it’s the processing coupled with pasteurization that enhances the quality.

While you could grab some Kraft singles and call it a day, there are better American cheeses to be found in the capital – one of which is used by a few of the best burger joints in Beijing.

Besides chain restaurants like Shake Shack and Fatburger, this one cheese is featured at numerous restaurants that made our 2021 Burger Cup Top 12, including 3 Little Pigs, Side Street, and Slow Boat Brewing, the latter of which won the Beijinger’s 2020 and 2021 Burger Cup respectively.

The American cheese that ties all these restaurants together hails from Dinner Bell Creamery.

Launched as a brand in 2019 by Associate Milk Producers, Inc. (AMPI) – the largest cheese cooperative in the US – Dinner Bell sets itself apart from the competition in that it’s also a cooperative that works with nearly 1,500 family-owned dairy farms in the American Midwest. The milk from these farms is sent to one of eight co-op factories, where it’s made into cheese.

So why do the likes of Slow Boat, Side Street and 3 Little Pigs use Dinner Bell cheese? The answer lies in the flavor that’s lent to it through pasteurization and processing. This results in a farm-to-table cheese with a mellow yet creamy flavor, as well as nutty notes and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that, when combined, enable it to contend with the flavor profile of a rich burger.

More importantly, Dinner Bell cheeses meet Chinese food standards on Sobic Acid and microbial testing for imported cheeses. DBC cheeses have also won over 200+ awards in international cheese competitions. This means if you’re getting DBC cheese, the quality is guaranteed.

If you want to try the cheese for yourself, it can be found at the aforementioned places along with other restaurants like Larry the Bird, MiamMiam, NBeer Brewpub, Messy Burger, Magnet and, one of Beijing’s newest burger eateries, SOLDOUT.

You can also grab Dinner Bell’s American and American Swiss singles at the deli counters of various shops and grocery stores around town, including Ole, Jenny Lou’s (Sanlitun and Xincheng branches), T11, Jenny Wang, BHG Marketplace (SKP, Solana, and Sanlitun branches), and Meat Mates’ Zhongliang branch.

An American cheeseburger is nothing without real American cheese, and if you want to make a burger to rival some of the capital’s burger slinging greats, then you can’t go wrong with Dinner Bell Creamery cheese.

Images: Dinner Bell Creamery, Slow Boat, Fatburger