What is your favorite kind of cheese?

[gmatov]

JJ,

It's a Brit thing, I think, cheese on toast, beans on toast.

Just what does it mean, toasting bread then putting a slice of cheese or beans on it, or more like the US toasted cheese, or grilled cheese, where you put the cheese between 2 slices of bread then fry it in butter in a skillet?

Craig's right, the more mature, the better, the sharper the aroma, the better.

And veined cheeses are absolutely delicious, blue, as in bleu cheese, or green as in Gorgonzola.

I can't find the name of the English blue wrapped in Stilton or maybe double Glouchester. That, too, is a pretty good product.

Happy nibbling.

Cheers,

George

[Doramius]

I found this odd, but I know several people who eat cheese this way. I didn't think it would taste very good, but I was extremely surprised. Eat a slice of ColbyJack cheese on a Krackle bar. Or take any rice krispy chocolate bar and put colby cheese slice on it. Some people I know eat it this way plain or on a trisuit or graham cracker. It's actually quite good. I just wonder how it got started and what possesed someone to try to eat the 2 together. It's like wondering who the first person to mix peanut butter and jelly together and did people think it was disgusting to do beforehand?

[thayne]

Where's Monterey Jack????

[offline]

Anyone else thinking of Wallace & Gromit ?

[Capmaster]

I found this odd, but I know several people who eat cheese this way. I didn't think it would taste very good, but I was extremely surprised. Eat a slice of ColbyJack cheese on a Krackle bar. Or take any rice krispy chocolate bar and put colby cheese slice on it. Some people I know eat it this way plain or on a trisuit or graham cracker. It's actually quite good. I just wonder how it got started and what possesed someone to try to eat the 2 together. It's like wondering who the first person to mix peanut butter and jelly together and did people think it was disgusting to do beforehand?

Not too surprising. If you ever drive through Wisconsin and stop at those roadside combination gas/restaurant/general stores, you'll find cheese/chocolate confections all over the place.

[gmatov]

Offline,

What's a Wallace and Grommit?

Cap,

Made with pinconing, I presume? One of my buddies from Michigan, now down here in PA, likes to bring a bunch back when he goes "home".

Colby is a "Made Yesterday" cheddared cheese. Cheddar is the way they cut the curd, but the weight they put on it varies, so you might get a crumbly, curded cheese, or a solid block of rubber, like almost all the US cheddars, think Borden and Land'o Lakes, real "4 Quart Cheese".

Monterey Jack? just another rubbery byproduct of too much milk going to waste. Make this stuff and spend some bucks to push it, and them pipple who think Kraft is God's gift to good nutrition will scoff it up.
For Christ's sake, read the lable. Anything that takes 2 paragraphs to write and a PHD in Chemistry to decipher is not a "real" food. They don't even call it cheese, they call it "processed cheese food".

Limburger, well aged, when molded and pressed to age with a "brick", became Brick Cheese. Aged some more, and I have some in the downstairs fridge, becomes a hell of a lot bette than the on the shelf stuff. Again, rubber when bought, outstanding when aged.

Problem is, when the first spot of mold shows, eeewwww, it's rotten, pitch it. BIG mistake. Bacteria makes cheese. Killed bacteria, as in "processed", makes for a cheese food that wil keep for years, and taste the same then as now. Shitty.

Cheers,

George

[offline]

gmatov,

Wallace & Gromit are cute claymotion characters created in the
U.K. Three short 30 min films were made which were very funny
and they became famous throughout Australia and the U.K. The characters seem to exist entirely off tea, crackers and Wenslydale (spell check?) cheese. Well worth watching if you can get the DVD.
The same people made Chicken Run, the movie.

[sacajaweeda]

Edam & Gouda are pretty good cheeses.

[gmatov]

Offline,

Thank you. I just checked my cheese "bible", by Steven Jenkins, and he says Wensleydale, you only missed the second "e", is a rather large, dryish, rather subdued flavor cheese.

Interestingly enough, he thinks that, had the Romans not invaded the British Isles, they might not have had such a large cheese producing industry. Ireland is said to have 5 times the number of cattle as humans, and what else would you do with all that milk?

As to Wensleydale, prior to 1957, it was supposed to be very good, but the beaurocrats got involved, regulated the moisture content, changed it into a run of mine cheese, and most cheesemakers simply gave up on it.

Interesting that my 500 + page book, the cheeses of the world, make no mention of any Australian cheeses. i find it hard to believe that there is no cheese industry in a country of that size, with, I presume, many cows, and I am sure, very many sheep. It's hard to buy any type of lamb, here in the US, that is not marked as NZ spring lamb. And it is lamb, a leg weighing maybe 7 pounds,as opposed to home grown, which might be 15 or more, ie, a "lamb" which has had lambs of its own, ie, mutton.

Tell me if there is a cheese industry there. Would be interested to know.

Rule 1. If it doesn't bite a little, it is last week's batch of cheese, maybe good enough to put on a bagel, but certainly not a table cheese, let alone one to savour. The sharper the better.

Cheers,

George

Edam and Gouda: bland, bland, bland, at least those we get here, as they have to be made of pasteurized milk or aged at least 60 days to be allowed to be imported to the US. Too many cheeses have to be made with raw milk to ripen properly and grow the correct flavour.

[offline]

Gmatov,

you are asking the possibly the worst person. My knowledge of cheese is very
poor. I can report that, perhaps like the U.S., the most popular cheeses (if you
can call them that) are those manufactured locally or in New Zealand by
multinationals such as Big Ben, Kraft. Nestle and Simplot. In most
supermarkets you are treated to an infinite array of sweet rubber blocks,
plastic wrapped slices, pretend wax wrapped discs or plastic stick goodies for
the kids. Health and cholesterol are the watchwords and low fat, fat reduced
yellow cardboard is the solution.

Before you swear never to your foot in the country, we do have a growing
albeit boutique, cheese industry. You can obtain fresh cheeses, almost as
good as the worlds best, they say. Variety is said to be good to average,
but as I tend to buy only 3 types of cheese, I could not vouch for that.
We have a few cheese "universities" where traditional methods are taught.
LIcences are available for producing cheese outside industry standards.

I think we have a way to go yet.

PS. On the subject of lamb - yep we get real lamb and real mutton. I
noticed overseas that mutton was often quite young and that lamb
was..well.. middle aged! I love a good lamb roast or lamb
back strap, but a real mutton spit roast melts in the mouth with a
strong but sweet flavour. Our lamb is better than NZ lamb but
their mutton is the best by far.