What new snacks have you tried out for the 1st time lately?
Dr. Q the M knows his cheese, so I expect that he’s familiar with what ze Germans refer to as “butterkase” (there should be an umlaut above the a there). It’s bright yellow, and frankly I was a little hesitant at first just because it looks so much like cheddar, which I do not like at all.
This is quite different. Addictive, mild but with a nice flavor. I love the texture, not crumbly at all, and with a nice snap between your teeth. I’m having it with a little sliced tomato, and it is delicious!
(I found it at Kingma’s Market, for anyone near the Grand Rapids area.)
So … tried anything new to you lately that you wanna tell us about?
I mean, I guess if you tried anything new and DON’T want to tell us about it, we shall never know.
I bought some vegan butter recently, only because it was short-dated at the supermarket. It was delicious and really versatile as a butter substitute. In some cases, dare I say it, even preferable to butter.
I had goat cheese on my shopping list a few months ago and accidentally snagged a package of goat butter.
It’s different, with a…grassier taste, I was going to say a stronger taste but that conveys something (at least for me) that isn’t true. It’s still a very mellow buttery pleasantness. But different. Yummy on bread. We saved it for times when we were buttering something directly and not using butter as an ingredient in a recipe.
Freeze-dried raspberries. I got them because we wanted to go a month without shopping, and i still wanted berries for my breakfast cereal. They are like candy. admittedly, with a slightly freeze-dried flavor. But also a strong raspberry flavor.
and it was pretty good. Aldi has lots of seasonal things—they’ll have them for a week or two and then they’re gone. Odd stuff sometimes; they had a green cheese at Halloween and IIRC recently one was gin and rhubarb flavored. You never know what you’ll find. And although it’s not too exotic but if you see the wrapped cheese tray (some with prosciutto, some with pepperoni, some with salami), try it. [drool]Oh, my…[/drool]
Last year, the wife and I got a big can of powdered camel’s milk at the farmers’ market that used to be just east of our apartment (place got closed down for the duration of the pandemic). Camel’s milk is some good stuff, too.
I got a piece of ghost pepper cheese in a gift basket a while back. I finally opened it last week and was initially freaked out by how hot it was. I asked my gf her opinion; placed a small piece on a cracker, and that tiny taste was all she needed to freak out on me, asking why I thought she needed to try it.
I actually wondered if it was a gag, not really intended to be eaten, but the label was like that on any other foodstuff.
Since that initial taste it has grown on me. A few pieces of the cheese, some crackers or bread, and beer. I’ll definitely buy it again.
Shopping yesterday, I found ground lamb was the same price as 80/20 chuck I’d intended to get so I switched plans. Lamb needs feta so I circled back to the deli counter. The top of the case was obscured by condensation and the four fetas along the bottom were a little more than I wanted to spend ($7-9/lb) except the ‘double cream feta’ that was $5 and there was a nice sized chunk ready to go in the brine.
I tried it when I got home. Bland, limp (no crumble, just kind of mushes), barely salty, zero tang, very disappointing. I’ll eat through it as best I can but I won’t make this mistake again.
Butterkase is yummy, it’s 50% fat. No butter in it, though.
I loves me some Gjetost, but I can only find Ski queen locally. It’s a fine brand and I enjoy it, but I’d really like to try the all goats milk gjetost sometime, and the Ski Queen variety is mixed goat/cow milk. I love its sweet caramel notes.
I’m also jonesing for some aged caraway cheddar (preferably 4 years old at least) but my local sources have dried up. It’s all mild caraway cheddar that’s available. Argh.
I also need to find some older gouda again, say 4 to 5 years at least. The flavor is so different from the young goudas, and that crystallized calcium lactate in it gives it such a flavorous crunch!
Same for aged swiss. It was a treasure some years back when I got my hands on 9 year old swiss, an unheard of age for the stuff!! I had always considered myself lucky to find 3 year old swiss, but that stuff was out of this world. The liquid in its holes was the essence of swiss flavor concentrated into a golden liquid, and I savored every drop. Fortunately the local Deppeler’s aged swiss, though only 2+ years old, is passably tasty, and also contains that liquified essence of all swissness (and yes I know, ‘swiss’ is just a misnomer for the wide variety of cheeses made in Switzerland).
I actually tried Gjetost not too long ago; it was great, but apparently a cheese with so much sugar that it caramelizes is, perhaps, not the best cheese for someone with mild lactose intolerance. Whoops.
I recently got into mint chutney after realizing it’s what the local Indian place served with their samosas. I’ve been putting it on freaking everything; the brand I got also has green chili (as does the one the restaurant uses), so it’s got a nice heat along with the herbiness. I’ve also been mixing spices (cardamon, cinnamon, black pepper) into my dried almond butter (with splenda and salt) to make a nice, spiced almond butter substitute for sandwiches.
I gotta admit, the concept of liquid that’s seeped out of cheese into the holes does not bear close mental scrutiny.
Oh, I got some of that, too! It’s creatively labeled “Very Aged Gouda” and says it is “at least” four years old. I love garden-variety gouda, and I was intrigued by an aged, crystal-laden version.
Do you have any suggestions? I’ve been nibbling on tiny bits by themselves as the mood strikes me, but I feel like I could be doing … something … with it.
I’ll have you know that process bathed every veyne in swich licour, of which vertu engendred is the flour! Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth inspired hath in every holt and heeth!!
When I saw the title of the thread I thought the OP was channeling Steve Brust. In one of his Drageara stories, Vlad is eating a new kind of toroidal roll and remarks that this would go great with butter cheese and smoked redfish.
But apparently there really is a Butterkäse. You live and learn.
When I was in Denmark, I really enjoyed gjetost. I once started to make it using leftover whey from making Ricotta, but it seemed it would have to cook for hours to get rid of most of the water. And it only cow milk anyway, so not authentically goat.
My co-op started carrying it a few years back and since then it’s been winning awards. The location has become a little too commercial for my liking (tourist trappish), but that doesn’t affect the great taste.
Tried homemade Romescu sauce. I’m a fan, it’s like ajvar but different due to the nuts. I’m not sure how long the jar is going to last honestly, it’s great with cheese and and baguette! We cheated and used almond butter instead of the slivered almonds…
