308 replies to this topic

[Dave Hatfield]

Well I just couldn't stop with the cheese. Having got an all clear from my cardiologist (good heart & good blood) I've started experimenting cautiously with cheese. Here's my latest.



I'd never seen this goat's cheese before so I bought a round. Besides it was on special at the local supermarket.

It was Ok, mild and smooth, but nothing to write home about.

Notice, however, that unusually the label gives two measurements for the Materiel Grasse. This sent me off on a hunt to understand why there would be two measurements and what they mean.

This led me to some interesting sites all of which I've written up (or will very soon) on my website. Interesting stuff if you're into cheeses.

[ChristinaM]

Thanks for your kind thoughts and suggestion, I'll be trying them and looking out for 'fatless' cheeses here.

Thanks for the tip Abra.

We'll see that the results are when I go for blood tests next week. I strongly suspect that my chlorestrol will be back down to normal if so that plus the fact to my blood pressure is now normal will ebcourage me to start eating cheese again.

I'll just keep the quantity down & the quality up.

What's the old saying? "Life is too short to eat bad cheese."

I've just read through this whole thread and the first thing I wanted to say was that I'm really sorry to hear about your health problems. I hope by now that you have managed to reintroduce lots of cheese into your diet. I try to curb my cheese enthusiasm purely for reasons of vanity (I don't want to be the size of a house!) so I try as far as possible to stick to the highly flavoured varieties, more 'bang for the buck' so to speak!
I was amused to see the discussion way back about aged gouda, I am lucky enough to have a great cheese shop quite close to where I live which used to be owned by a lovely elderly Swiss lady. Long story short she was finally persuaded to retire when cutting the ancient goudas became too much for her! We had all watched, for years, as she jumped up and down trying to chisel away at the wretched stuff, half convinced that she would literally die in the attempt. Of course she refused all offers of help! She must be in her 90s by now but still helps out when the new owners go on holiday. They pre-cut chunks of gouda before they leave
Ironically the one cheese I have found difficult to get round here (eastern Scotland) is a reliable strong cheddar. You'd think it would be easy, wouldn't you? The best I've found is sold by Marks and Spencer and is called Cornish Cruncher, absolutely yummy. It is one of the few cheeses I will buy prepacked.
Nobody (as far as I can see) has mentioned Vignotte which is so wonderful to eat with a ripe pear - or several.

[Reignking]

I tried gjetost for the first time this weekend, which tasted like a caramelized, grainy cheese ala dulce de leche.

[Dave Hatfield]

Thanks for your kind thoughts and suggestion, I'll be trying them and looking out for 'fatless' cheeses here.

Thanks for the tip Abra.

We'll see that the results are when I go for blood tests next week. I strongly suspect that my chlorestrol will be back down to normal if so that plus the fact to my blood pressure is now normal will ebcourage me to start eating cheese again.

I'll just keep the quantity down & the quality up.

What's the old saying? "Life is too short to eat bad cheese."

I've just read through this whole thread and the first thing I wanted to say was that I'm really sorry to hear about your health problems. I hope by now that you have managed to reintroduce lots of cheese into your diet. I try to curb my cheese enthusiasm purely for reasons of vanity (I don't want to be the size of a house!) so I try as far as possible to stick to the highly flavoured varieties, more 'bang for the buck' so to speak!
I was amused to see the discussion way back about aged gouda, I am lucky enough to have a great cheese shop quite close to where I live which used to be owned by a lovely elderly Swiss lady. Long story short she was finally persuaded to retire when cutting the ancient goudas became too much for her! We had all watched, for years, as she jumped up and down trying to chisel away at the wretched stuff, half convinced that she would literally die in the attempt. Of course she refused all offers of help! She must be in her 90s by now but still helps out when the new owners go on holiday. They pre-cut chunks of gouda before they leave
Ironically the one cheese I have found difficult to get round here (eastern Scotland) is a reliable strong cheddar. You'd think it would be easy, wouldn't you? The best I've found is sold by Marks and Spencer and is called Cornish Cruncher, absolutely yummy. It is one of the few cheeses I will buy prepacked.
Nobody (as far as I can see) has mentioned Vignotte which is so wonderful to eat with a ripe pear - or several.

Great story! I can just picture her.
I'm not back on much cheese, but am slowly starting again.

[suzilightning]

saturday's snacks



from 6 o'clock:

7 year Quebec cheddar
Rogue blue wrapped in grape leaves with pear brandy
smoked cheddar
Rogue smoky blue

this is what the Rogue wrapped in grape leaves looked like before being cut. the couple who own the shop had just gotten it in and we tasted together. i really got the brandy and then the blue just exploded. the female shop owner got more of the penicillin taste.



ok, not cheese but we also had these oven roasted shrimps with some cocktail sauce. i really like doing shrimp this way

[nhsherr]

Golllllllleeeeeeee, all you big city types are leaving me salivating.  I've never had any of the stuff you're talking about, but the names alone sound incredible.  I am very jealous.  And I am going to start saving my money for more mail order food.

Here in the American Outback, we have a far narrower selection.  So my newest love is Cambozola.  And tonight after work, at Wichita's own claim to fame, the one and only Dean & Deluca warehouse (yes, that's right, most of their stuff comes from Wichita these days) I will be picking up some manchego and membrillo.  That's enough to make me happy.  Will I still be, after tasting some of the stuff you're talking about?

A slice of manchego dipped in a bit of honey is so de-lish!

[devlin]

Just wanted to chime in on the issue of cutting back on cheeses for health reasons and make a suggestion. I love cheeses, and I also try to eat cheese judiciously, although perhaps no more judiciously than anything else. I don't have a weight problem, but if I ate as much cheese as I would LIKE to, yikes, yeah, I'd be big as a house too.

Anyway, the point I sort of wanted to raise was that it might be worthwhile for folks who've been cautioned by their docs to ease up on dairy and other fats to consider adding freshly ground flax to their diets. My husband was advised to cut cheese and dairy out of his diet, and the doc also suggested perhaps some cholesterol meds, but my husband objected, did some research, discovered after a lot of reading that some studies have indicated flax can actually lower cholesterol, together with a healthy diet, and so he starting adding a couple tablespoons of freshly-ground flax to his smoothies or cereal/oatmeal, and after about a month, voila, his cholesterol lowered very substantially. He still eats cheese (way more than I do), all kinds, but his cholesterol is now within the normal changes.

It's also not the case that dairy products/fats/cheeses, etc are always the cause of high cholesterol.

[Chris Hennes]

Ordinarily I am a big fan of pungent blues, but I am having a very hard time appreciating the Cabrales I picked up the other day. The first bite is an interesting, complex sequence of flavors, one right after the other in quick succession. Then the mouth-numbing tingling aggressiveness kicks in, and by the second bite I can't taste anything at all. Does anyone have any tips for appreciating this cheese? Should I be eating it with something else? In much smaller pieces? What's the secret?

[Katie Meadow]

Good with nice cold grapes. And sherry maybe? I always like a strong blue cheese with fruit. I'm addicted to Stilton eaten with apples or pears.

Edited by Katie Meadow, 21 August 2009 - 05:02 PM.

[suzilightning]

Ordinarily I am a big fan of pungent blues, but I am having a very hard time appreciating the Cabrales I picked up the other day. The first bite is an interesting, complex sequence of flavors, one right after the other in quick succession. Then the mouth-numbing tingling aggressiveness kicks in, and by the second bite I can't taste anything at all. Does anyone have any tips for appreciating this cheese? Should I be eating it with something else? In much smaller pieces? What's the secret?

use it to make croquettas and serve with a quince dipping sauce. a little cheese goes a long way in this recipe. we actually subed the cabrales for the manchego.

Edited by suzilightning, 22 August 2009 - 07:28 AM.

[Kerry Beal]

Was in Wegmans in Buffalo today and picked up a chunk of cheese I'd never purchased before - named Gjetost. I'd noticed it before, but today picked up the package and gave it a sniff. When I realized it smelled like dulce de leche I had to have it. It is a gorgeous brown colour, just like a chunk of caramel.

Tasty little number, caramelly, salty - yum!

I think thin little slices on some sort of nice wet rye bread would be quite amazing.

A bit of internet searching led me to this site which shows you how to make it.

[djyee100]

Was in Wegmans in Buffalo today and picked up a chunk of cheese I'd never purchased before - named Gjetost...

Gjetost on rye crackers, topped with some kind of berry jam. One of my college roommates spent a summer traveling around Norway, and lived on this Norwegian treat.

[LindsayAnn]

OH MY GOODNESS... I think I have found a NEW favorite cheese. And by new, I mean all-time favorite, as in #1. Not just "one" of my favorites. And, it's not every day that I find a cheese to top off my list of BEST cheese. I love cheese, mild and strong/stinky cheese (although I think more often than not I prefer stinky and/or strong/sharp USUALLY). I love hard cheeses, crumbly/firm/crystallized....and I also love soft cheeses, especially OOZY flowing cheeses.

One of my favorite cheeses for sometime has been Winnemere. I also like Epoisses a lot. Love Taleggio, etc... Strong/Sharp cheddar's, as in super aged :) Love them all. Also, I have become a big fan of Goats cheeses, both fresh chevres and aged raw milk goats. I really tend to try not to discriminate when it comes to cheese

So, what is this NEW cheese (new for me that is) you ask? Found today, at our local Binny's wine depot, in the gourmet cheese section in the rear of the store I tasted - and immediately purchased - Brescianella. Its a Pasteurized (too bad it's not raw, ) cows milk cheese from Italy. It was located in the glass cheese window next to the Taleggio, and on the description card stated, among other descriptors, "Similar to Taleggio". So I tasted it, since I like Talleggio a lot. Well, I didn't find it similar to Taleggio actually. I liked it WAY better. I could tell just looking at the half wheel of cheese in the case that is was at a MUCH softer, oozier state than the Taleggio that sat next to it. And I was right. This is super super oozy, as in ripe Winnemear Oozy...which is when Winnemere is at its BEST, in my humble opinion. Similar to Winnemere in a sense that they both carry, relatively, the same 'strength' or, 'pungency' factor. As in they are both outta this world delicious strong.

So so good. Anyone else try this? And - what are yours thoughts? If you ahve not tried this cheese, please seek it out if you like intense cheeses. MMMM

I should also note that I bought a second (new to me) cheese. Dunbarton Glue. It's a mix of raw and pasteurized cows milk, hard/firm cheese. Predominantly cheddar (white, not yellow) with a blue essence (and streak) in it that is actually viable - not just flavored with blue noted....there is a streak of blue within the center-ish of the cheese. This is also very very good. Good for snacking and I am sure everything else. I wanna see how this one melts actually

So, all in all my VERY lazy day was SUPER productive since I found two new delicious cheeses, one being super-duper-stellar.

[Dave Hatfield]

Lindsey Ann - Nice to see you back & still eating lots of cheese.

Don't know if you can find it in the states, but if you can try Chaource.

Think you'll like it.

I like to pair it with St Felicien.

[andiesenji]

I made an excursion to the first real cheese shop in Arizona - on 3/12/10.
(some might consider it a raid!)
The name is Petit Fromage and for such a small enterprise, (one good sized refrigerated case at one end of the store) there are some amazing cheeses.
(I bought a few, plus some cultured butter and two kinds of goat butter).

It is inside and part of:
D'Licious Dishes
5345 N 7th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85013
(602) 274-3663
And which has some very appetizing foods to either eat there or take home, lunch and/or dinner. Scrumptious stuff.

I decided to spend an extra night in Phoenix on my way home from New Mexico just so I could visit this store and am very glad I did. I sincerely hope that Petit Fromage makes it because Phoenix really needs a dedicated cheese shop.

Cheeses purchased 3/12/10

Cave Aged Gruyere Switzerland (Kaltbach) see below re: brunch.

Idiazabal Spain I have long been a fan of this cheese and this one is exceptionally fine. Perfect with pears and I have other ideas of how to use it.

And from right here, in the USA,

Feliciana Nevat which I consider the perfect snacking cheese.
Holy Cow - Vache Sante' lovely crumbled on a salad.
both of these from Chef John Folse - Bittersweet Plantation Dairy in south Louisiana.
http://www.jfolse.co...ry/products.htm


also;
Mantuanella Farmstead Butter Italy: http://www.mantuanel...ng/products.asp

Cabrima Goat Butter-salted Product of Holland
Cabrima Goat Butter-unsalted




Brunch today (3/14/10) an eggy-eggy omelet with crispy-browned sausage topped with a few thin slices of the gruyere.
The gruyere is delicious as a snacking cheese, with fruit (apples, pears and grapes for me) but it has enough character to stand up to the asserted flavor of country sausage and eggs. Just delicious.
Eaten out of hand, it has the little crunchy bits that only appear in an aged cheese and contribute to the flavor.
(An eggy-eggy omelet is my little invention when one has a guest but only two fresh eggs. I found two hard-boiled eggs in a container filled with water in the coldest part of the fridge, beat the two fresh eggs with some heavy cream, chopped the hard-boiled eggs coarsely and added them to the beaten eggs, poured this picture over nicely browned chunks of country sausage and when nearly done, added the gruyere.)
My guest ate every scrap of her half of the omelet. (Me too.)


If you are in Phoenix and have a bit of extra time, do visit this shop. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. You can taste every cheese before you buy and it is all cut to order unless they happen to have a piece already cut. The date it is packaged by them is on the label, which I consider a big advantage.

Edited by andiesenji, 14 March 2010 - 02:34 PM.

[kayb]

Andiesenji, I love Idiazabal as well; like it better than Manchego, I think. I tend toward the hard, aged cheeses or the semi-firm younger ones. Lately I've been buying 3-month aged sheeps milk and cows milk cheese from my free-range organic meat supplier, and that's keeping me happy. I supplement it with an aged Gouda (most recently Green Heart), Idiazabal, Manchego or Uniekaase Robusto. And I try to keep Gruyere and Jarlsberg around as well. When I've had a big lunch, dinner is often cheese, fruit, toast, honey and a glass of wine.

[Chris Hennes]

I had forgotten how good Humboldt Fog was until I made goat cheese tamales for dinner tonight. Some of the cheese even made its way into the tamales!

[andiesenji]

I just placed an order with I Gourmet for a wheel of caerphilly and while waiting on hold, was clicking on other items on the site.

I was surprised to see that they now carry Liederkranz! which disappeared from U.S. stores a couple of decades (or more) ago.
I loved this cheese and never found an adequate substitute, although some of the limburgers are pretty good.

[Kouign Aman]

Costco had a chili-cheddar that has significant piquancy, and good cheddar flavor. If they continue to carry it, its likely to become a staple at our house.

[Dave Hatfield]

Gosh, it seems a long time since anyone has posted to this thread. Kouign Aman, thanks for doing so & for the nice picture.

It inspired me to go to the fridge & see what cheeses we have in 'stock' at the moment. That plus wanting to try our our new lens on the camera caused me to take some pictures of the cheeses we have.

Here they are:



We have four cheeses in stock.



This is a cream cheese with chives & garlic. Very popular with lots of brands available. Boursin being the best known brand.



Here's the price label on a piece of cantal. Note that its "entre deux". Cantal typicially comes in young, Medium & old versions. Entre deux being medium. About 6 months old. As its made not too far from us its very popular. We use it as if it were cheddar.



St Andre is a well known cows milk cheese. Very mild flavor. You can just make out the sell by date on the wrapper. 10-07-2012. That's 10th July in the French way of doing dates.



What's left of my favorite St Felicien. This cow's milk cheese started life as a goat's cheese, but is almost exclusively made from cow's milk these days. It comes from the Rhone-Alps region. Simply delicious. Don't know how available it is in the states, but if you can find it - try it!

I'll try to be more active on the cheese front in future. Lets hear from all you other cheese lovers.

Edited by Dave Hatfield, 14 June 2012 - 01:46 AM.

[Zeemanb]

I've REALLY been getting back into cheese lately..... a couple of weekends ago I attended a dinner at Green Dirt Farms- a sheep farm in Weston, Missouri that makes some incredible products. If you happened to catch Bourdain's recent Kansas City episode, this was the farm featured towards the end, and the super-ripe cheese they were eating is the same one featured in this dish (and as luck would have it, Chef Howard Hanna from that episode was the featured chef at the farm dinner I attended). Green Dirt does these dinners throughout the summer, hosting local chefs who showcase their cheeses and lamb.

Anyway, they do a washed rind sheep's milk cheese called "Bossa", and when it gets good and ripe at about 10 or 12 weeks, it is a DELIGHT....

One of the greatest cheese-centric dishes I've had in...forever, I guess, was this simple frittata. Cooked in a cast iron pan over coals, with farm eggs, locally foraged roasted mushrooms, and....wait for it...........a very ripe and runny, halved Bossa sunk into the middle when it was about 3/4 cooked. Normally I prefer this cheese with minimal accompaniments, but this particular dish showed proper respect, the Bossa was the star. I think six of these total were on the table at one time.....

[IowaDee]

The current issue of CI has the results of a tasting of artisanal cheddar. The top of the lists and highly recommended is
Prairie Breeze from the Milton Creamery in Milton, IA. If you haven't tasted it, your'e missing a treat. We are lucky
to live just a bit away but the cheese is carried on Igourmet, in most WF stores and lots of other places. Well worth
searching out.

I love the fact that it is made from milk produced on local Amish farms. The makers are a Mennonite couple and
their sons. Give it a try, it is wonderful.

[FrogPrincesse]

I tried a new cheese last night - a chocolate stout cheddar by Rogue Creamery (at the far end of the plate).
The other items on the plate are some Ossau-Iraty cheese (that Trader Joe's calls "Basque Shepherd's Cheese"), an AOC sheep milk cheese that is an old standby of mine; homemade saucisson sec; rustic bread.



The chocolate stout cheddar was a disappointment. It was not offensive or anything but did not have much flavor at all.
In contrast, the Ossau-Iraty is packed with flavor. It's nutty and a little sweet.

[janeer]

The current issue of CI has the results of a tasting of artisanal cheddar. The top of the lists and highly recommended is
Prairie Breeze from the Milton Creamery in Milton, IA. If you haven't tasted it, your'e missing a treat. We are lucky
to live just a bit away but the cheese is carried on Igourmet, in most WF stores and lots of other places. Well worth
searching out.

I love the fact that it is made from milk produced on local Amish farms. The makers are a Mennonite couple and
their sons. Give it a try, it is wonderful.

I will. Thanks for the info.

[FrogPrincesse]

The chocolate stout cheddar was a disappointment. It was not offensive or anything but did not have much flavor at all.

OK, I was a little harsh in my assessment of the chocolate stout cheddar. I am having another piece right now and can taste subtle flavors (hops, chocolate), even though it's still not really my cup of tea. It might have been a bad idea to pair it with a gin flight as I did last night (not by design). The gin pretty much neutralized all these subtle aromas. Obviously beer would be a much better pairing!

[Dave Hatfield]

Its nearly 4 months since anyone has done a cheeses post. Yet, on my recent food blog there seemed to be more interest in cheese than almost everything else.

I'd like to see if we can generate more activity. I'm sure that these days there are plenty of good cheeses being made in the states. I for one would like to hear about them.

To kick things off I'm going to do a post on three local varieties of goat's cheese tomorrow. I'd do it tonight, but want better light to take some pictures.

Additionally, I might just see if St Antonin market has anything special to offer tomorrow.

Let's hear from all of you cheese loving eGulleteers!

[Emily_R]

I was recently in Madison, Wisconsin and spent time in an amazing cheese chop there, Fromagination. I bought this cheese there, and it was exceptional:

http://heavytable.co...sartori-cheese/

The text there describes it as cheddar meets parmesan, but I think it has more of a cheddar meets manchego feel... Really really good! The coffee rubbed rind was very mild to me -- not strongly coffee flavored, but just added a little more savoriness....

[Anna N]

Dave, I have always enjoyed a variety of cheeses: Havarti, Tilsit, Danish blue, Stilton, Cheddar, Gruyere, Emmental, etc., but when Kerry Beal introduced me to her cheese monger, Mickey McGuire's in Dundas, Ontario, I entered a brave new world of cheeses.  They carry over 400 cheeses and one is welcome to try as many as one wants.  My first taste of Ossau-Iraty and I was prepared to sell my soul for a hunk of it.  The staff know their stuff and are generous with both their knowledge and their samplings.

I can't easily get to Mickey's but am determined to learn as much about cheese as I possibly can. I live not far from a Whole Foods and our local Longo's carries a surprising variety and their staff are quite knowledgeable.

 I have even begun to attempt making some simple cheeses at home.  

We have a thriving artisanal cheese industry in our neighbouring province of Quebec and Ontario is beginning to show some promise too.  

I am challenging myself to try 3 new cheeses a week but whether my budget or my waistline will be up for the task remains to be seen.  

I am up in the north right now which is pretty much a cheese desert but will be home in a little over a week to sample some more cheeses.

Love to hear from more members about their cheese adventures. 

[Dave Hatfield]

I was recently in Madison, Wisconsin and spent time in an amazing cheese chop there, Fromagination. I bought this cheese there, and it was exceptional:

http://heavytable.co...sartori-cheese/

The text there describes it as cheddar meets parmesan, but I think it has more of a cheddar meets manchego feel... Really really good! The coffee rubbed rind was very mild to me -- not strongly coffee flavored, but just added a little more savoriness....

This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping for. Interesting cheeses with links and as a bonus some are available via mail order. More, more please!

Dave, I have always enjoyed a variety of cheeses: Havarti, Tilsit, Danish blue, Stilton, Cheddar, Gruyere, Emmental, etc., but when Kerry Beal introduced me to her cheese monger, Mickey McGuire's in Dundas, Ontario, I entered a brave new world of cheeses. They carry over 400 cheeses and one is welcome to try as many as one wants. My first taste of Ossau-Iraty and I was prepared to sell my soul for a hunk of it. The staff know their stuff and are generous with both their knowledge and their samplings.

I can't easily get to Mickey's but am determined to learn as much about cheese as I possibly can. I live not far from a Whole Foods and our local Longo's carries a surprising variety and their staff are quite knowledgeable.

I have even begun to attempt making some simple cheeses at home.

We have a thriving artisanal cheese industry in our neighbouring province of Quebec and Ontario is beginning to show some promise too.

I am challenging myself to try 3 new cheeses a week but whether my budget or my waistline will be up for the task remains to be seen.

I am up in the north right now which is pretty much a cheese desert but will be home in a little over a week to sample some more cheeses.

Love to hear from more members about their cheese adventures.

Again, what I was hoping for. A budding cheese maker, wow! Please keep us up to date on your cheese adventures.

These posts are so neat that I'm going to hold off on my next post about some of our local cheeses. The weather was lousy this morning so I didn't go to market anyway.

I'll will post on cheese soon though.

[rotuts]

just spotted this thread. Yum! most of us dont have access to the kind of cheese/Bread/local Plonk so ....

looking forward to your Cheeeeze!

BTW DH: Youve been Busted! and You Know Why!