Cheese - Awesome Food of the Gods

[Roland Deschain]

I see no thread on here about cheese. I'm assuming that there are many adherents to cheese here, and thought we could discuss the relative merits of said cheeses. I love cheese. I've tried many different types, and have a few favourites, including, but not limited to:-

Cheddar - Must be extra mature and strong!
Emmental - A wonderful nutty cheese that I found in France.
Red Leicester - It's cheese and it's orange. A little like cheddar, but milder.
Brie - OMFSM, I love Brie in all its incarnations. The best was one with wild garlic infused through the middle, that I found in Switzerland.
Cream Cheese - Not sure of the exact variety, but one brand is Boursin, which has a number of "flavours". Typically French.
Feta - Wonderfully soft goat's cheese from Greece. The Greeks and Turkish make many types of goat's cheese.
Halloumi - Greek-Cypriot semi-hard cheese made from goat's and sheep's milk, that's perfect for grilling. You need to try this.

As you can see, I love cheese, and try local varieties wherever I go, especially when on holiday. I kept thinking of more, but decided to leave it at this.

[pieces o nine]

I like Havarti, both plain and dill or basil types.

[Swatopluk]

For the most part I stick to Edamer

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Ooooh... second the aged, sharp Cheddar varieties.  You can get that here, called "New York Sharp" and it's good eating just by itself.

I also love any form of the ubiquitous Swiss-- but only real cheese, not the fake or imitation-fake stuff (that's never seen the inside of anything alive... bleahch).

Muster is good, when you can find it.

For sandwiches, I like Provolone.

I'll echo a love of Havarti, only with carroway seeds too.

Once in a long while, you can find sun-dried red-pepper cheeses in the specialty sections.   Yummy.

Alas, the Stupid FDA has pretty much bannanated all non-pasteurized cheeses....!!!  Seriously, what's the Eff with that?   When you pasteurize a cheese?  It stops being alive.... and there is no point to aging it further.   Idiots.

I'm always up for trying a new cheese-- but here in the middle of the Bible Belt?

These poor slobs think "Velveeta" is .... a luxury item......!   You can even get fake velveeta....... *sigh* fake... imitation "cheese" ...  (yeah, but it melts real guud, they reply... so?  Never heard of a double-boiler?)

Mozzarella is also quite popular hereabouts-- which is fine for cooking and such, it melts so very lovely when sprinkled on top, but it's kinda bland in flavor, ain't it?  Yes... yes it is. 

Which probably h'explains why Velveeta is popular hereabouts:  it's bland.  It's salty.  It melts "real guud"...  and it will keep on your shelf (yes-- your shelf) for years and still taste the same...

... I've seen mousetraps baited with velveeta, that have sat for years ... and the velveeta was probably as "good" as the day it was baited...  <snerk>

Cheese... if it is real, actually from a mammal made-from-milk cheese?  Is wonderful.

Even plain old mild Cheddar...

[Opsa]

I heartily concur with my Sibling's declaration of cheese as being divine. I love cheese and will try any variety. My faves are often the sharp, hard ones, but I have a soft spot for Brie as well. (Soft spot? Get it? Yok.)

I go bananas for sage Darby.

[Aggie]

Cambozola is one of my favorites.... that Camembert creaminess with a hit of Gorgonzola at the centre.  I'm not a big cheese consumer, so I tend to enjoy very flavourful cheeses in small portions.

Canada can be a bit of a cheese desert due to our dairy mafia blocking cheap imports, but good gouda is easy to come by locally, and Quebec has some excellent and diverse fromageries.


Fermented foods of all types are divine, I think...  beer and kimchi are probably closest to my heart.

[Roland Deschain]

I'm so glad i'm not the only cheese freak here. Thanks for the recommendations above, I look forward to trying them. There are a couple of Turkish supermarkets near me, and they sell some really nice cheeses there, too, specifically several varieties of goat's cheese, and several varieties of what appears to be processed cheese, although not processed like the plastic stuff you get at McDonald's. This stuff is actually nice.

Edam/Dutch cheese I love too. I think i've had Havarti before, but a while ago now. I think that the only cheeses i've not been too fond of are some of the blue ones. I like blue cheese, but can only take it undiluted in smaller portions. It's nice, but can be a little too much at times. Mmmm, mould on cheese...

Banninating unpasteurised cheese is akin to murder. So what if the cheese is still alive? That's half the fun! (Fake fake cheese? Seriously? Heathens!!!!!).

[Griffin NoName]

I used to live in Cottenham where there was a famous cheese : alas the recipe was lost.

[pieces o nine]

I lived for eons in Wiscaaaaaahnsin, "America's Diaryland". As an interesting aside, when Madison sponsored a new state motto contest, one of my friends (a wine dealer) submitted  WISCONSIN: COME & SMELL OUR DAIRY AIR.  Sadly, he was not the winner.

But I digress. A popular fare in the Dairy State is cheese curds. The locals went crazy for them, praising their squeakiness, ya hey. Personally, I found them frightening.


String cheese was also a big favorite. It is entertaining, at least the first few times.

Have any of the rest of you tried these delicacies?

[Aggie]

Curds, yes. We have a cheese factory nearby, and I've been eating their curds since I was small. Curds are also a necessary ingredient in poutine (which is even more frightening than the curds alone, at least for your arteries), but one of the few genuinely Canadian foods out there*.

_{*I suppose seal flipper pie is another one, but it's not widely eaten even by Newfies}

[Griffin NoName]

Curds, yes.

Watch out for large spiders and maidens sitting on toadstools.

[The Meromorph]

I used to eat about four and half pounds a week, but now I only eat about two kilos....   

To all of the above, add
Caerphilly, Wendsleydale, Lancashire, Cheshire, Jarlsberg, Ricotta, Roma, Asiago, Ballyshannon, BabyBell, Gouda, New England White Cheddar, Port Salut, Neufchatel

[Opsa]

Hi Mero!  

I've had string cheese. It's fun because you can peel the shreds off in handy strings, and is convenient for kids because it can be found in individual packets, nice and neat. It's a sort of wrung-out Mozzarella, no?

[Sibling DavidH]

I love most types of cheese.  I'm with Aggie on Cambozola, that's nectar.   

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Brie, Jarlsberg, Robusto, Manchego, Mahon, Cabot...
---
I use mozarella and feta, but those are -to me- in a different category.