So, I was watching Wallace and Grommit and noticing Wallace’s OCD about cheese.
How he lists all the cheese like a rosary of prayers. Cheeses I’ve never heard of. (Stinking Bishop) Cheese that because of him were saved from obscurity and bankruptcy ( Wenlesydale cheese, I beleive.) and I started thinking that the only cheese I ever see are:
Swiss
Cheddar (in its various forms)
Monteray Jack
American ( Yellow and white)
Jalapeno
Feta
Gouda
Have I been cheese blind or is my neck of the woods severly lacking in the fromage department?
Here’s a list of various kinds of cheeses. Now you may educate yourself. Your local supermarket will have no idea what most of these are but that shouldn’t stop you from asking about them.
You can edam 'em for not carrying the cheese you want.
You have led a sheltered life. A day without cheese is a day without sunshine. Some of the cheeses I can name, just offa the toppa my head:[ul][li]Gorgonzola[]Parmesan[]Romano[]Mozzarella[]Provolone[]Farmer’s[]Onion & Garlic[]Cream[]Wine[]Cheddar[]American[]Curds (cheddar)[]Longhorn[]Swiss[]Bleu[]Roquefort[]Goat[]Colby[]Brick[]Mouse (whatever is left over)[]Muenster[]String[]Smoked[]Spreads[]Pimento[]Mizithra[]Pepper Jack[]Marble[][/ul]…and don’t forget one of my favorites, “melted.”[/li] This site says it has 654 cheese names in a searchable database.
That’s a sad little list, Shirley Ujest. My local supermarket has perhaps 30 varieties. The cheese shop I go to has about 150, including the only recently legal here Roquefort (a blue, unpasturised goat’s cheese made since at least 79AD) I’m nibbling on now.
Shirley, even up here in the frozen north we get a good variety of French, Italian, and other cheeses that put your list to shame. Obviously you have been lax in your cheese shopping. Slacker!
I’m guessing your local grocery store has more cheese than you list. Check out the deli area - that’s where the stores up here put the “fancy” cheeses, they’re not over in dairy with the Kraft Singles and pre-shredded Sargento.
If you have a co-op around, check them out. Our local co-op has a really great selection, including some Carr Valley cheese (Wisconsin artisan cheese shop that has won many national awards). Not sure if that’s available down in Trollville, but it’s worth looking for if it is!
My wife’s family is the largest importer/distributor of high-end cheeses in the U.S. Their complete listing contains about 2000 different cheeses making up a few hundred different types. Their warehouse has 40,000 square feet of refrigerated space with racks 20 feet high. That is a lot of cheese.
My supermarket has a triangular display, quite large, with all kinds of delicious yummy cheeses and some not so delicious ones, too. I tell you, you haven’t had real macaroni and cheese until you’ve had gruyer (forget the spelling) mac-and-cheese. Me and the SO will never go back to plain, we’re too spoiled.
Ah, Shirley. Wallace has again shown someone the light!
Now that you know all these wondrous cheeses are out there, you get the joy of exploring them and tasting them all for the first time. Almost makes me want to break into a chorus of “Cheese, glorious cheese”… but my fellow cube-farm dwellers might take it amiss.
Just don’t forget the accompaniments. Some nice, frou-frou crackers. Wine (and of course, that can lead to all kinds of other splendid explorations). A bit of summer sausage, or if you’re of demented Scandinavian descent, herring.
I forgot about Parmesan and the other stand Grocery store fare.
We do have a regional cheese here called Pinconning out of Pinconning, MI. I don’t recall if I have ever had it.
I really wonder what Stinking Bishop is like.
Even a Coles or Woolworths in Sydney has enough varieties of cheese to keep one going for months without repetition. Tonight for me it was King Island Blue Brie, last week Jindi Chili Brie - I just buy whatever is on special.
I couldn’t live without my stinky “Le Chatelain” camembert. Cut a wedge out of the little wheel, and leave the wedge out at room temp for an hour or two, or until it’s runny and malodorous. Serve with crusty bread. Gotta have some roquefort, too!
I recently starting shopping at a local Portuguese market, and they carry “Quiejo Topo”, a nice, fruity, semi-firm cheese. It’s my most recent addiction, and it’s a bargain, too.
NPR news did a story on it. They started selling a lot more of it after Wallace mentioned it. When they sell it all, though that’s all until the next batch. They’re a small outfit without any plans to expand.
The cheese itself is a very smelly sheep’s milk cheese. The Bishop in the name was a sheep farmer named Bishop, who invented the variety.
Shirley Ujest mentioned the Wensleydale creamery, which was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy when Wallace spoke ecstatically about it in a W&G short (probably A Grand Day Out, in which man and genius dog go to the moon to partake of the moon cheese.) Wensleydale folks were so grateful that some of their labels have a picture of Wallace and Gromit. One variety is even named after them. I’ve seen it in a catalog somewhere.
