The Lemon Fool

According to Google it is Marie Harel's 256th birthday today. Allegedly the inventor of Camembert.

I have to admit to a liking for French cheeses (is that allowable in these Brexit days?) Roquefort is probably my absolute favourite, closely followed by both Gorgonzola and Stilton (do you spot a pattern here?) But most cheeses float my boat except generic goats cheese, feta or haloumi.

I also will admit to a strong preference for French bread with my cheese although Carr's water biscuits with Stilton or a very mature chedder is absolutely acceptable.

What's your favourite cheese/substrate combination?

John

redsturgeon wrote:What's your favourite cheese/substrate combination?

That's cruel, it's too hard a question.

- Rough Scottish oatcake with butter and extra mature cheddar
- Proper French stick with Saint Agur blue, or Roquefort, or runny Camembert, or ...
- Stilton anytime anywhere

And many more of course.

Scott.

We - in what must be a strong candidate for the world's #1 cheese-producing region - are privileged with a regular cheese fair, organised by our local cheese shop. A chance to meet the makers, sample the cheeses (and a few related things like local pickles, wines, ciders), and enjoy educational talks about subjects like the actual production, and what makes a cheese soft vs hard, strong vs mild, etc.

Next event is August this year: see http://www.countrycheeses.co.uk/ . I wouldn't try to shop there while the cheese fair is on (too busy), but the rest of the year it's fantastic. If you're a cheese-lover from further afield, you might want to make a pilgrimage to the cheese fair and brave those queues to buy.

I buy Brie and Cam and B.Stilton from Aldi

The smellier the better

Well our butcher sells Colston Bassett Stilton on their deli counter and I have to admit to eating too much of it as it is by far my favourite cheese.
I like it on fresh farmhouse loaf, or almost any of Tesco Finest West Country Biscuits For Cheese, or digestives, or melted on a burger from the butcher.

Beyond that, a strong cheddar is my 2nd favourite. Dorset Blue Vinney, Shropshire Blue, a good Red Leicester (a rare beast), Dolcelatte, proper Swiss Gruyère (medium to mature) in fact I haven't met a cheese with a decent bit of flavour to it I don't like.

There is one I have been searching for for years that we chanced across in the late 60s in Dijon. It was a local white cheese wrapped in leaves that my Mam chose on the cheese board in a lunchtime restaurant stop, much to the approval of the locals. She said she would remember the name, but didn't. We all tried some and I thought that it was wonderful.


I like cheese!

Slarti

Undoubtedly cheese is good to eat and apparently has health benefits too:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317088.php

It seems that over the last few decades cheese has undergone a revival similar to that of beer (there's a good pairing).

I was just wondering the other day why I haven't had a decent piece of Double Gloucester since I was a child, the answer in part is that Gloucester cattle have almost died out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester_cattle

Different cattle do produce different milk.

RC

redsturgeon wrote:What's your favourite cheese/substrate combination?

There are soooo many!

Feta, cherry tomatoes and olive salad.

Mozarella, sliced beefsteak tomatoes with olive and oil balsamic vinegar with rocket.

Bacon and brie sandwiches.

And of course a cheeseboard... sometimes with bread, sometimes with crackers, sometimes with fruit, sometimes with saucisson or salami

I like cheese but it isn't for me the big thing it seems to be for many people.

The only continental cheese I'd really bother to search out is Swiss Gruyere which I do like very much.

Blue cheeses? No! Parmesan - hate it, at least I hate the smell so much that I can't get past that to the taste. Ditto Feta.

Things like Halloumi, Ricotta, Mozzarella, just don't see the point of them. They seem to be just a form of semi-solidified grease with neither taste nor texture.

I've tried to acquire the taste for local(ish) goats cheese but always find it very uninteresting.

I do like a really good mature cheddar and find Sainsbury's Organic Mature Farmhouse Cheddar particularly good. A farm shop not too far away sells smoked cheddar and I've acquired a bit of an addiction to that. Like Slarti I like Red Leicester but it is a very variable product.

I don't normally buy cream cheese as I find I eat it once and then the rest sort of lingers in the fridge. I also don't tend to eat breakfast out as I don't tend to like the things on offer but on Tuesday having dropped my van off very early for service and MOT I found myself on Bedford High Street with a raging appetite. I went into 'Coffee with Art' and as well as an extremely good cup of coffee I had cream cheese with toasted bagel and it tasted wonderful.

To eat with cheese? Well apart from melting it onto the odd thing like pasta dishes I mainly like it with fruit be it a humble apple or pear or some decent grapes. I like it with Ryvita but it has to be dark Ryvita and there has to be butter too. I also like it with Rich Tea biscuits, in fact it is the only reason I buy Rich Tea biscuits.

Slarti wrote:There is one I have been searching for for years that we chanced across in the late 60s in Dijon. It was a local white cheese wrapped in leaves that my Mam chose on the cheese board in a lunchtime restaurant stop, much to the approval of the locals. She said she would remember the name, but didn't. We all tried some and I thought that it was wonderful.


I like cheese!

Slarti

Wife says that sounds like Banon from Provence, but I think Italy and Spain have leaf wrapped cheese too. Pretty sure you can even get Yarg in nettles.

Yes, big cheese fan too, and couldn't possibly pick. Except for cheese on toast, it has to be crumbly Cheshire (any colour), and the saltier the better.

baldchap wrote:Wife says that sounds like Banon from Provence, but I think Italy and Spain have leaf wrapped cheese too. Pretty sure you can even get Yarg in nettles.

The original (and still most popular) Yarg was famously wrapped in nettles.

Our cheese shop now has a couple of other varieties, including a cave aged Yarg that I think is made specially for them.

Depends on the taste, what's required of it, it's purpose.
A good blue cheese, like a Roquefort or something else equally pungent. I'd prefer to have an English version if it gave me a similar punch.
Oily/waxy cheese. I was brought up with a block of Jarlsberg on the breakfast table, and I love it. Perhaps it's a kind of comfort food to me, just heaven. They now make aged versions which is expensive but wonderful IME. Good Emmental can vaguely approximate it, in some ways IME.
Then soft cheese. A brie/camembert type cheese, but I'd prefer if it were from the UK.

That covers the main bases, cheese-wise, for me. But am always interested to try new things.

UncleEbenezer wrote:
Our cheese shop now has a couple of other varieties, including a cave aged Yarg that I think is made specially for them.

It's made close to here, they also make Cornish Blue which I recommend, it's not a sharp as Stilton but nonetheless has a good flavour.

RC

On a bit of a tangent, what about a cheese toastie? Got to be Red Leicester in my view.
Did try Stilton once, in a bit of an alcohol-induced stupor. Not a good idea.

--kiloran

kiloran wrote:On a bit of a tangent, what about a cheese toastie? Got to be Red Leicester in my view.
Did try Stilton once, in a bit of an alcohol-induced stupor. Not a good idea.

--kiloran

I have to disagree! It needs decent bread, cut thickly to start with. And a generous covering of Stilton. It's my favourite use for the inevitable piece left over from Xmas.

RC

Too many to quote them all but our all time favourite is a well matured Comte, (it helps that my wife is from the Jura and that it was made at one time in her village). We also enjoy a good Vacherin, hot with boiled new potatoes.

Whenever we have visitors from the Jura, they always bring some Comte with them, best if made with rich spring milk.

john

kiloran wrote:On a bit of a tangent, what about a cheese toastie? Got to be Red Leicester in my view.
Did try Stilton once, in a bit of an alcohol-induced stupor. Not a good idea.

--kiloran

If doing a cheese toastie, cheese between 2 bits of bread in the George, my favourite is frozen white bread then strong cheddar a splash or 2 of Worcestershire sauce followed by another slice of frozen white bread and then butter on the top. Turn when nearly done to ensure an uneven finish.

Cheese on toast, on the other hand, fresh farmhouse or granary farmhouse doorstep, toasted on one side then the cheese added to the other. I love doing it with Stilton as a treat, but usually use cheddar, or if I'm feeling a bit strange, Edam.

Slarti

I'm lucky in that one of my favourite cheeses is a local one - Butlers' Blacksticks Blue - http://www.cheese.com/blacksticks-blue/ It's one of the best blue cheeses I've tasted, and I love it with Carrs Melts, in fact just typing this is making my mouth water!

ReformedCharacter wrote:Undoubtedly cheese is good to eat and apparently has health benefits too:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317088.php

It seems that over the last few decades cheese has undergone a revival similar to that of beer (there's a good pairing).

Where's that rec button?

I was just wondering the other day why I haven't had a decent piece of Double Gloucester since I was a child, the answer in part is that Gloucester cattle have almost died out:
RC

Indeed, I have a faint recollection of my youthful self liking double gloucester, although I've a sneaking suspicion that might mostly be by contrast with some of the rubbish that passed for cheddar at the time (and, alas, still does if you buy the wrong stuff).

If you want something that's still edible, our cheese shop (referenced above) has both a double gloucester and it's rarer cousin single gloucester.

ReformedCharacter wrote:
It seems that over the last few decades cheese has undergone a revival similar to that of beer (there's a good pairing).

RC

The Grumpy Goat in Reading is a beer & cheese shop. Which is good.

baldchap wrote:Wife says that sounds like Banon from Provence, but I think Italy and Spain have leaf wrapped cheese too. Pretty sure you can even get Yarg in nettles.

We were pretty sure from their minimal English and our minimal French, together with copious mime, that it was a cheese that was a very local to Dijon cheese. But we could have been mistaken.

And it was a long time ago.

Slarti