ChefTalk.com › ChefTalk Cooking Forums › Cooking Discussions › Food & Cooking › Your Favorite Cheese
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Your Favorite Cheese - Page 2

post #31 of 88
8/17/08 at 3:27pm

The Cheese Course

You're reading this thread because you probably like cheese. If so, you might enjoy Janet Fletcher's "Cheese Course" that has been appearing in the food section of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Cheese Course Janet Fletcher

scb
Reply

Featured Stories on ChefTalk.com

The Making of a Chef Innovator, without the Pomp
When Cooks Cook for Themselves
Follow ChefTalk on Pinterest!
post #32 of 88
8/17/08 at 10:29pm
I love a very sharp cheddar, and a close second is a creamy blue cheese. My daughters, age 8 and 5, both love blue cheese. I'll be cooking and if they see the blue cheese out they both want some. So I'll put some in a plastic sandwich bag for each of them and off they go, happily snacking away.
Reply
post #33 of 88
8/18/08 at 3:33am
At the moment i just can´t get enough of Port Salut - my new favorite is port salut and spinach risotto.
Reply
post #34 of 88
8/18/08 at 7:02am
Hooks 10 year cheddar

Goatsbeard Fresh Chevre
" blue


Delice de Bourgonone.....oh my......

Parmesan Reggiano

burchita (sp)

D'Affinoise

French Feta, though I had a Corsican feta a couple months ago that blew me away.

Sid has a bandaged wrapped cheese that was gifted to me last year, what a treat.

Cheese glorious cheese....everything from fresh creamy farmstead chevre to creamy funky triples, to hard aged sharps......with crystals, man I love a cheese with crystals.

It's not abnormal for there to be a cheese course at my home....normally includes fresh fruit, preserved fruit.....macerated prunes/dried cherries/figs/fig almond loaf etc....olives, honey, and crackers (raincrisp are amazing)/bread.
cooking with all your senses.....
Reply
post #35 of 88
8/18/08 at 7:21am
It's quite possible that Hooks and Goatsbeard are available here. I know the Corsican feta is. Definitely want to try them all.

Thanks for the suggestions.

shel
Reply
post #36 of 88
8/18/08 at 4:47pm

Jimi Hendrix Chevre

Earlier this afternoon, while at the local produce market, I pickrd up a cheese that I've been meaning to tryfor a while: Purple Haze goat milk cheese, made by Califonia based Cypress Grove Chevre, based in Northern California. Cypress Grove makes the well known and well regarded Humboldt Fog.

The cheese is coated with lavender and fennel pollen, and is generally sold in 4-oz, 3-inch diameter discs. The cheese is luscious, creamy, and smooth. It ciuld almost be considered an alternative to some cream cheeses. I love Cypress Grove's "disc" cheese - regular, herbed, and now Purple Haze. The nice thing about Purple Haze is that the cheese's flavor is not masked by the fennel and lavender, yet the taste of the herbs is obvious but subtle. The small package travels well as it's wrapped in a secure plastic casing, and would be ideal for picnics, travel, and other outings. It's a nice size to place on a cheese board.

I've yet to find a Cypress Grove cheese that I don't like, but I'm only about half way through their product line. You might want to pick up a disc of one of their chevres if your market or cheese shop carries them.

Purple Haze Cheese
Savor the herbs in a Purple Haze
Cypress Grove Chevre :: The Cheeses

shel
Reply
post #37 of 88
8/18/08 at 7:22pm
oh Shel sorry......
as far as accessing 10 year Hook, you have to shop at Madison Farmer's Market.....
and Goatsbeard is sold in STL, Columbia MO, KC and Whole Foods in MO....it is my joy to have Ken Muno at my dinner table when he comes into STL for Wed farmer's market......there is always a great cheese course when Ken's here. the Muno's farmstead 55 goat dairy is 20 miles west of Columbia, so Ken drives 2.5 Hours to make it to STL. Great chevre. His blue is coming along nicely and the hand ladeled fresh chevre can't be beat. I've got several 2# tubs in my freezer......great for savory or sweet.

Purple Haze has been here for a while.....
we also get Judy Shad's cheeses too.

One of my English farmers market buddies was telling me about the cheese makers in her area.....oh man......

Last week a good shrooming friend was in town (he now lives in both Paris with his girlfriend and STL which was his home for years).....anyway they bring in lucious cheeses cryovaced and frozen from France, he sends detailed discriptions of his cheese mongers selections.....really delightful dining with them. This last time they were able to bring in canned (jarred) pate.....pretty darn tasty. Anyway it was facinating to learn that good raw cheeses can be frozen.
cooking with all your senses.....
Reply
post #38 of 88
8/18/08 at 7:35pm
For me, my number one will always be the undisputed king of cheeses, Parmesan Reggiano.:D

Would never be able to turn down a wedge of sharp aged Wisconsin Cheddar either...


And I don't think anybody has mentioned any Swiss Cheeses. A good Muenster... mmmmmmmmmmmmm yum!
Reply
post #39 of 88
8/18/08 at 8:00pm
BooHoo! Well, I have relatives in STL and my sister's going out there some time soon. Maybe they can be prevailed upon to send some of the Goatsherd.


Have you tried the Purple Haze?

Judy Schad - Capriole?

That's nice to know. Maybe I should try it sometime and see the results for myself.

Have ypou been to Cowgirl Creamery's Cheese Library?
Cowgirl Creamery / Library of Cheese / Organic Cheese / Cheese Profiles / Raw & Pasteurized Cow, Sheep & Goat Milk

Later Toots,

scb
Reply
post #40 of 88
8/18/08 at 8:10pm
Emmenthaler, Stilton, Pecorino Romano.
Reply
post #41 of 88
8/18/08 at 8:12pm
But now I thought of 5 more cheeses. How could there be just one?
Reply
post #42 of 88
8/18/08 at 9:32pm
Niche, a restaurant in STL has Cow Girl Creamery Cottage Cheese on their cheese menu.......considered it but got Ewe's Blue and Delice de Bourgogne....shoulda done the cottage cheese. Their selling cheese by the oz (approx 4-4.5 per oz) comes with crostini and some preserves, presentation needs some help but cheese list is pretty decent.
cooking with all your senses.....
Reply
post #43 of 88
8/19/08 at 3:52am
I adore cheese and buy most of mine from I J Mellis Cheesemonger - Involved in the cheese industry since 1979

I love most French cheeses, anything from Brie to Camembert to Roquefort. I also enjoy some Italian cheeses, including Gorgonzola - and love Danish Blue cheeses.

My favourites are British cheeses - local Scottish ones like Dunsyre and Lanark Blue and Dunlop, Isle of Mull Cheddar and some ewe's milk cheeses.
I also like other British cheeses, for instance Stilton, Leicester, Double Gloucester, Caerphilly, Wensleydale (beloved of Wallace and Grommit), Stinking Bishop, Shropshire Blue, Davidstow Cheddar, Lancashire.

I make my own oatcakes to eat with cheeses, and always have a couple of packs of oatcakes from Ian Mellis' shops, too!

Edited to add: I also love Emmenthal, Jarlsberg and some German cheeses, too. In fact, I don't think I've seen a cheese that I haven't liked!
Reply
post #44 of 88
8/19/08 at 6:04am
Funny cheese story....one of my favorite cheese mongers got in some especially special Calvados steeped (?) camembert.....rare in the US and "special"....ok $20 later, I opened it in the car and after taking a bite did a U turn in the middle of a major road, went back to the cheese shop and quietly told him that the cheese had gone BAD. He tried it and said it was yummy.
All a matter of your preferences.
cooking with all your senses.....
Reply
post #45 of 88
8/19/08 at 9:21pm

Shropshire Blue

Shropshire Blue - one of my favorites. As I recall, a fairly modern cheese, developed in the 1980s or so. Back when my wife and I were visiting England I was getting tired of pub lunches that consisted in part of lukewarm peas and fat, soggy french fries. One day we were headed up to see some castle in the north and stopped for lunch at a place called The Bishop's Tun. It was named after a rock formation on the hillside, the Three Bishops. Anyway, I got the plowman's lunch, an assortment of bread, cheeses, cold cuts and some sort of pickle. One of the cheeses was Shropshire Blue, and it was love at first bite! Luckily it is becoming readily available here in the states. Not as good as what I ate then, but still a favorite of mine.

mjb.
Reply
post #46 of 88
8/19/08 at 9:32pm
Are you getting cheese produced by Neal's Yard Dairy? That's the real thing. I've seen it here in Berkeley.

scb
Reply
post #47 of 88
8/20/08 at 1:54am
No, I'm afraid it's not! - Neal's Yard Dairy is a cheesemonger, just like Ian Mellis - they don't make cheeses on the premises and haven't for a long time, they are made in Herefordshire (I think) at NY Creamery. I have often visited their shop when in London.

The Shropshire Blue was actually first called Inverness Blue, and is like a cross between Stilton and Cheshire cheeses, with blue veins.
Reply
post #48 of 88
8/20/08 at 2:00am
Teamfat - it's a great cheese. It is modern, and was actually once called Inverness Blue ('invented' by a Scotsman..!). I love it!
Reply
post #49 of 88
8/20/08 at 3:27am
I see ... then I have been misinformed by two sources. I've seen the cheese in a local cheese shop with a Neal's Yard wrapper on it. In any case, would you say that the cheese with the Neal's Yard wrapper would be the real thing?

shel
Reply
post #50 of 88
8/20/08 at 4:47am
I suspect they buy in the whole wheels of cheese and then portion it up, wrapping in their own paper to sell it on. However, that is only my opinion!

My Blue Salop cheese is sold to me wrapped in Ian Mellis' paper, but the cheese is made by the Colston Bassett Dairy in Nottinghamshire.

I don't know what cheeses the NYard Creamery makes nowadays since they moved the production to Herefordshire (or was it Gloucestershire..? I can't remember).
Reply
post #51 of 88
8/20/08 at 6:42pm
I might be able to narrow down my favorites to about 20, maybe.

Shropshire blue is one of them for sure. As with Huntsman's cheese, I got some as a layered blue/cheddar combination. I think it was Shropshire Blue and Double Gloucester. I drool just thinking about it :bounce:
Reply
post #52 of 88
8/20/08 at 8:43pm
I've been trying to remember the name, but it escapes me. A few years back I had this French cheese that I sort of recall being a semi-soft ripened cheese - don't recall the actual texture, firmer than a brie though.

I do, however, remember there being a thin layer of oak or hickory or ?? ash in the center. Can anyone refresh my memory? It was pretty good stuff.

mjb.
Reply
post #53 of 88
8/21/08 at 9:02am
Love Shropshire.....

Neal's Yard sells to Whole Foods here and ages cheeses as well as distributes.
They carry GREAT cheeses. I really like montgomery cheddar with eggs....just the right sharpness.

Mont D'Or is pretty special, if you can get the raw version it's amazing......

Ash. what shape was the cheese?


Cheese prices have gone up dramatically within the past few months....ugh.:(
cooking with all your senses.....
Reply
post #54 of 88
8/21/08 at 9:12am
Actually anything from this place is phenomenal. The unpasteurized goats milk cave aged isn't on there for obvious reasons. (dang regulations)

L o v e T r e e .........farmstead cheese
Reply
post #55 of 88
8/21/08 at 9:18am
It's been a few years since I've had Lovetree's cheeses.....

There are some cheeses out of the SF area that are named after musical terms that I've been jonsing to try. Oh, SHEL.......do you know the cheese maker's name?
cooking with all your senses.....
Reply
post #56 of 88
8/21/08 at 9:32am
Yep, Adante Dairy run by Soyoung Scanlan.

LoveTree looks like it makes some great cheeses. Thanks for posting the info, Kuan.

scb
Reply
post #57 of 88
8/23/08 at 11:47am
Okay, Shel...

Just got home from Whole Foods with a wedge of Roaring Forties cheese -only $22/lb :eek:

It better be good.

How about that for food in flyover country! :bounce:

Mike
travelling gourmand
Reply
post #58 of 88
8/24/08 at 1:09pm
Fontinella.
Reply
post #59 of 88
8/24/08 at 8:04pm
Let us know what you think of it ...

shel
Reply
post #60 of 88
8/24/08 at 9:13pm
I liked the part on the Lovetree site where they talked about storage of cheese, and dealing with mold. Basically the recommendation was that's what cheeses do, taste it, you might like it.

I've had some cheese get really slimy and foul after too long in the fridge, it gets chucked out, no questions asked. But a few light spots of fuzz or discoloration usually warrants an exploratory sniff and taste. Some gets scraped off, some doesn't. You just have to keep in mind that cheese is basically rotting milk - deal with it.

And Shroomgirl, the ash cheese was in rounds about 2 -3 inches thick, maybe 8, 9 inches in diameter, a soft, white rind with a light brownish tint here and there. I'll have to stop by the deli where I first bought it and see what they've got. I'm fairly certain it was of French origin. Another interesting note on the Lovetree cheeses was that they dusted a couple of their cheeses with charcoal.

Wow, what a coincidence. As I type this I'm listening to a commercial radio station instead of one of my usual entertainment sources. They just aired a commercial touting the virtues of Kraft American singles as the finest possible topping for a cheeseburger. Riiiiight.

mjb.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Food & Cooking

Featured Stories on ChefTalk.com

The Making of a Chef Innovator, without the Pomp
When Cooks Cook for Themselves
Follow ChefTalk on Pinterest!
ChefTalk.com › ChefTalk Cooking Forums › Cooking Discussions › Food & Cooking › Your Favorite Cheese