The way the cheese crumbles

[bobmac]

My local supermarkets offer containers of crumbled bleu cheese and crumbled feta, selling at several times more per pound than the uncrumbled versions. What's the point? Are we too busy in this hectic world to crumble our own cheese? Are some people crumble-challenged?

Edited April 26, 2007 by bobmac (log)

[Darcie B]

I have also seen crumbled cheddar and monterey jack. Con-ven-i-ence, I guess, although taking that extra 10 seconds to crumble your cheese does seem to be a rather insignificant amount of time. It's always amazing to me what people will buy. I'm sure many people would be happy to just take a few pills a day instead of eating if it were an option.

[scubadoo97]

I was looking for gorgonzola and went to the 3 big chain grocers in my area. No wedges, only crumbles

[Emily_R]

And of course, when I crumble my own feta, that means I get to lick my fingers after! For any of you with a Wegmans nearby, I cannot recommend their Israeli feta highly enough. So so so creamy (requires lots of finger licking)-- just divine!

[Porthos]

Okay, I'll admit. When it comes to Feta I'm lazy. I rarely use Feta except for a Spelt & Barley Grain Salad. I hand-prep everything else - and I have crumbled Feta myself when necessary but prefer not to bother.

However...

Feta is the only cheese we don't slice/shred or whatever ourselves. My DW is a mouse in disguise and good cheese is important to her. For Christmas I went to Trader Joe's and got her small cuts of several cheeses for her stocking instead of candy and such.

[Bonnie Ruth]

I was looking for gorgonzola and went to the 3 big chain grocers in my area.  No wedges, only crumbles

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I have noticed that, too. Sometimes I have to buy the overpriced crumbles because they don't have any wedges. Could that be what is really going on, that the stores are pushing the crumbles because they are more expensive?

[phaelon56]

Among the multiple Urban Dictionary definition entries for "crumb-believable" is this one - which beats the others by a landslide (84 thumbs up and only 7 thumbs down):

1. A recent commercial declared by Stephen Colbert to be a beacon of hope that will lead us to regaining our cultural unity as a nation.

2. A synonym for unbelivable used for humorous effect.

1. "If America is to prevail in World War III, we'll need some sort of common experience to bond us as a people... I believe the love for the word "Crumbelievable" ; is just the thing we need. Soon enough we'll be seeing crumbelievable t-shirts selling like hot cakes.

2. "Gas prices these days are outrageous! Crumbelievable, even."

And yes - I do buy crumbled blue cheese - I actuallly seek it out over the wedge type. I use a minimal amount on salads at home, buy it sporadically and don't use it very quickly. I can never consistently get a decent crumbly texture from wedges of blue cheese. It comes out as odd sized chunks when I chop it with a knife and the chunks have to be pushed or scraped off the knife with another utensil or my finger. Andd try crumbling it with your fingers sometime - now THAT's a messy and losing proposition.

In the store where I shop generic crumbled blue cheese (store brand) is only 40 or 50 cents per pound higher than the solid chunks - and I buy at most a half pound container at one time.

The producers of this either have

a) a magical industrial crumbler maker that ordinary citizens can't possibly afford to purchase (not to mention that it's likely to be the size of my entire kitchen)

b) a crumbler plus some really nasty additives that allow the cheese to stay crumbled and not get all gummed back together.

Either way - I don't eat much of it and I'll stick to precrumbled blue or gorgonzola. But I'll agree that these - Kraft Cheese Crumbles - don't make sense. I can grab a hunk of sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack etc. and shave off enought little chunks for a salad in about 30 seconds. Not to mention that unlike the pre-crumbled blue I buy - these products have a dramatically higher unit price (not to mention that the cheese itself just isn't as good as similar varities I can buy in solid chunks from cheesemakers who produce a better product than Kraft).