Tell me about your favorite cheeses! Tell me about unusual cheeses! Tell me how you prepare and serve cheese!
Some of my favorites:
Camembert – I like a very funky camembert, smeared on toast or just in funky chunks from a knife. I’ve heard anecdotally that leaving it outside the fridge makes it even funkier and flavorful, but I’m afraid to try it (and afraid it will stink up my whole house!).
Comte – this is a light yellow, hard-ish cheese, with a texture similar to cheddar, and a nice unique slightly-funky flavor. I generally eat it plain.
Swiss/Emmentaler – I love it sliced on roast beef sandwiches. Roast beef, swiss cheese, tomatoes, and horseradish…
Back in 2018 I saw something called “Fromaggio” on Kickstarter. It was a proposal for an all-in-one countertop cheesemaker. I had a few extra hundred dollars at the time and was in a jovial mood so I bought into the “early backers” for $300-some dollars. It’s retailing for $785 on their website, so if this thing ever shows up, I’ll have gotten a hell of a deal. If it ever shows up, and works.
But if it does, everyone’s getting cheese for Xmas. Forever.
My standard answer for threads of this nature: aged gouda. New gouda is kinda boring and bland. But after aging for I’d say, at least 2 years, it transforms into something amazing and sublime-- notes of caramel with a nice nutty funkiness underneath. And those little crystals of tyrosine that develop add some texture.
Plain, boring supermarket deli provolone, cut into ¼ or ⅓ lb ‘slices’, which are then placed in a metal pie plate & put into the smoker. Sooo much better after coming out.
The world’s best cheese is made just up the road from me. Not that I can made a habit of $50/lb blue cheese, but as an occasional treat it is spectacularly good stuff.
Or yesterday’s breakfast - your basic ham & cheese omelette, as prepared by a classically-trained French chef. Smoked ham, Emmental cheese and served with a Parmesan sauce that was to die for.
I love Cheddars but have not found anything I like better then Kraft or other US brands. The English versions just have a flavor profile I don’t care for. I like mellow.
English Stilton is excellent but I never keep track of which brands I like best. The stock at my store varies a lot. Amish Blue made in Ohio is great also.
But the best is REAL Colby cheese. It is hard to find since the USDA changed the allowable ways to make it and most places chose the new method which does not have the crumbly, pull-apart texture.