Friday Five: Cheese!

[jack]

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/83769.html

OK, this is going to be a bit repetitive, because I REALLY like cheese, but I don't have a lot of specifics, just, like, almost all cheese :)

1. What was the first type of cheese you ever ate?

I mean, I really don't remember, but most likely corner-store cheddar, that's what we'd have often, and for that matter, is still what I have most often (although I usually buy extra vintage, or whatever the strongest is, which we didn't use to).

I can't remember if I ever ate baby bell or other cheese I think of as more likely to be specifically liked by children -- I really don't like it now, I don't know why, so I'm guessing I didn't, but I don't remember for sure.

2. What was the type of cheese you ate most recently?

See above :) But other than that, we did buy a selection of interesting cheese from the botanic garden apple day, being Cornish Yarg (always good), Dragon's Breath Cheddar (which was indeed, very strong), and another I've forgotten.

3. What is the most unusual cheese you ever ate?

Good question. I'm pretty happy to try anything that's vegetarian (and I cheat a bit with cheese even though I don't with meat), but I don't remember anything that stands out. See the "likes" selection for ones that may be a bit more unusual in Britian.

4. What is your favorite cheese?

I'm not sure I have a single favourite. Well, possibly "strong cheddar" in that if I had to pick one type of cheese for the rest of my life it'd probably be that one, but it's not the most *exciting* cheese. But for cheeses I really like, I can list quite a lot:

Really, really strong cheddar, like more so, like the dragons breath above, or the quite similar monk something cheese we get from swedish supermarkets.

British milder cheeses like Cheshire and Wensleydale, which I feel are really underrated and I really like. See, I don't ONLY like strong cheese :) I mean, you go into a supermarket and they have fifteen types of strong cheddar, and I really like strong cheddar, but they're just not that different. but they have ONE type of Cheshire, sometimes not even that.

Raclette, a style of meal where you lightly roast vegetables and pour semi-melted cheese over them a bit like fondue.

Funnily enough, I used to dislike runny cheeses. They just seemed strange. Now I've finally started enjoying them, but there's none I've totally fallen in love with.

Some particular cheeses I've noted down to return to:

Cornish Yarg is always good
Lincolnshire Poacher is really good, really strong and flavourful
Apres Solei we had once from the shelford deli (as with several others on the list),

Halloumi, both eaten straight, roasted or fried, or battered, or cubed and used and filling in a sauce like paneer. Oh, and rather different to most other cheeses, but I guess paneer too :)

I'm always interested to try sheep's cheese or goats' cheese, even though I can't name a particular brand as a favourite.

Parmesan (or preferably Grana Padano as Osos introduced me to) as a garnish is very appreciated too.

And for that matter, I'm not sure of the underlying sort of cheese, but bubbly, crispy cheese topping I really really like.

5. What is your favorite dish made with cheese?

...all of them? :) I pretty much always love things with cheese.

Although I didn't used to like cheese on toast (I do now).

And funnily enough, I never really liked eating cheese by itself, I always wanted it with *some* sort of carbs.

Comments

[mtbc]

Sounds great, I love various cheese too: plenty of feta in last night's meal. Was pleased on Wednesday night to happen by a heavily discounted cheese board selection on Asda's reduced shelves. Looks like I might have to find a proper cheese shop if I want some Sage Derby though.

[mtbc]

Oh, I should add, I usually try to pick up some Cheshire from a proper cheese counter when I'm in the NW, even just from Booths or whatever, often seems better then.

[simont]

A conspicuous absence from §4 is any mention of blue cheeses. Is that a kind you don't like, or did they just not happen to spring to mind?

I'm pretty happy to try anything that's vegetarian (and I cheat a bit with cheese even though I don't with meat)

The last vegetarian I invited round for dinner, I asked 'How picky are you about the vegetarian credentials of cheese?', and got the reply, 'I treat cheese as innocent until proven guilty – and please don't prove it guilty.' :-)

I'm always interested to try sheep's cheese or goats' cheese, even though I can't name a particular brand as a favourite.

I can, dammit. I used to love Etorki, a creamy sheep's cheese that you used to be able to get in Sainsbury's. Then they stopped selling it, as they eventually do with everything I decide I especially like¹, and the closest approximation I can still find is Ossau Iraty, which is still very nice but to my tongue not quite in the same league.

¹ and, I assume, everyone else is victim to this instance of Murphy's Law as well

[jack]

Damn it, dreamwidth ate my comment.

A conspicuous absence from §4 is any mention of blue cheeses.

Oh yes, I generally like blue cheeses, but the list of cheeses I like was turning into a list of all types of cheeses so some I just didn't get to :)

For a while, we had a trade, I'd eat all the stilton and Liv would eat all the brie :)

The last vegetarian I invited round for dinner,

My line is usually, if there is a vegetarian version, I'd prefer to get that, but if there isn't, I'd prefer to buy what there is rather than doing without.

And I'll try to summarise that to people if they ask, although occasionally I feel guilty if someone went to an effort to get the vege version I don't often bother with myself. I do try to avoid asking people to lie to me, because it's usually obvious what's ok, but I don't want to put anyone in the position of not being sure.

I will allow deviations like, if they ask if it's ok if the roasting meat accidentally drips on the potatoes, I'll say, can you please try to avoid it, but if it's already happened, I'll usually take my chances :)

It's occasionally awkward with the children though, if I've said, I don't do X, and then in some situations I explain I don't stick to that, and get asked "why not" and I don't have a good answer.

I can, dammit. I used to love Etorki

Ah, the inevitable "here's a thing you'd like but you can't have it" argument :)

I did in fact have Ossau Iraty on my list of cheeses I'd enjoyed and need to find again, but I'd forgotten WHAT I'd liked about it so I didn't include it on the list of favourites :) Nice to know there's somehting I mihgt like even more, even if it's not usually available :)

Then they stopped selling it, as they eventually do with everything I decide I especially like

I feel like this isn't just Murphy's law, it's specifically how modern society works. The benefits of mass manufacturing mean that we get a really amazingly good selection of consumer goods considering what we might have. But the nature of mass manufacturing means that you can ONLY get exactly what is produced, decided by a complex interplay of supply and demand -- "can I get this, but just different in this tiny way" you have to pay full price with no economies of scale and it's a LOT more expensive. So you're at the mercy of what's produced, the way people used to be at the mercy of famine or bandits (except that you usually have SOME food, but you can get totally screwed if you need a specific medicine or something).

And obviously, some things are "we pretty much always make this and we never make variations on it" and other things are "we keep cycling around so people have some variety", but however it works, you're going to have some things you like and some things you'd LIKE to have but just aren't there. At least with cycling you learn about them and can seek them out if you want to.

[mtbc]

Of course, having to adjust my cheese buying has been rather imposed by my moves between the UK and the US; I yet have a fifth ahead. (Over there, Whole Foods used to have a nice cheese counter but in some shops "Cheddar" could mean anything.) Of course, even within the UK moving around is an issue: locally we can buy a Scottish Brie, I've mentioned especially trying to get Cheshire when actually in the NW, and regarding Yarg I used to live in Cornwall which was handy. Also we shop at random-stock places like Lidl that, for instance, used to have a lovely presliced goat cheese that they no longer stock. (Presliced can be most handy for dieting though I do love my Rollschnitt cheese slicer.)

[jack]

I remember once needing to buy groceries in the evening when the only convenient place was a late night petrol station, open mostly for petrol, but the clerk could hand you things from the shop if they were simple. The conversation went something like

Me: ...and some cheese, normal cheddar, or anything would be fine.
Him: We don't have cheddar.
Me: Oh, sorry.
Him: How about Farmhouse Mature?
Me: That's fine, thank you.

I hadn't realised just how badly labelled... almost everything is.

[jack]

Oh yes, PS, I forgot Lancashire. I really like the Lancashire Grandma used to buy, and I don't know if that's because it was better in Lancashire or just nostalgia. Even fancy lancashire from cheese shops hasn't seemed the same, it's either been too mild or too tangy. Sometime I should go round taste testing lancashire in lancashire :)

[mtbc]

Yes, I have family in Lancashire and the Lancashire cheese bought actually-there is certainly superior for some reason. If nothing else, there are a couple of Booths right off the M6. It even melts reasonably onto toast, which took me some years to notice. (I also have family in Cheshire.) But do you prefer creamy or crumbly? (-:

[simont]

For some reason, crumbly cheeses are about the only kind of cheese I don't like much.

But creamy Lancashire is very nice, and I buy it whenever I spot it, which is rarely but not never.

[mtbc]

Late yesterday I discovered I'm journeying near Preston on Tuesday. It's a while since I bought the creamy, I'll give it a try. (-:

[mtbc]

Just got some of each from Hesketh Bank Booths to compare. (-:

[magnetic_pole]

Halloumi! Paneer! I might need to go back and edit my own entry to add these. I can't believe I forgot them.

I love the specificity of your response, J. It's made me hungry. :) M>

[jack]

It turns out I have a lot to say about cheese :)

[jack]

Huh, none of the responses talked about any very unusual cheeses, I expected somebody would. I mean, sheep and goat cheeses, really runny cheeses, and cheeses from different culinary cultures like paneer and halloumi are unusual by the standards of british hard cheeses I grew up with, but I was expecting to be surprised all over again :)

[hairyears]

Brébirousse cheese has a distinctive orange crust from repeated washing in brandy.

Does that count as unusual?

I have tried to source camels milk cheese for our occasional cheese and port parties; so far, without success.

So I would say that my cheese consumption is conservative, suburban and unadventurous: you must therefore ask among our mutual acquaintances in Cambridge, as it is possible that some or other traveller and adventuress has eaten Casu Marzu, a Sicilian sheeps-milk cheese that is best eaten wearing eye protection.

I did it my whey

[hairyears]

I'm a big fan of the crumbly, slightly salty, sharp white cheeses of Northern England: Wednesleydale and Cheshire.

But my two favourite cheeses are Morbier and Brébirousse de l'Argental.

Look them up, sometime, and be warned: both of them are 'gateway cheeses' to much stronger stuff - Morbier, with it's single blue line, to the hardcore blue cheeses; and the Brébirousse, mild and creamy, to the sinus-clearing turbo power of Époisses.

If you're looking for a memorable goat's cheese, try Rosary Ash. I don't think it's *really* made with a coating of incinerated rosaries, but I treasure the thought that it might be.

Re: I did it my whey

[jesse_the_k]

takes notes for unusual cheese, thanks.