Auntie, if you enjoy Athenos Feta, please hie thee to a Middle Eastern foods specialty shop and ask for some French or Danish (at worst Bulgarian) Feta, in that order. I know you will be in for a pleasant surprise. I have always detested Athenos for being, essentially, wet salted chalk. Recently, a friend was forced to buy some and I found it to be much improved. It was now, wet, salted rubbery chalk.
If Athenos is the only brand you’ve ever tried, you’ll be really glad to sample a genuine morsel of the real stuff. I buy mine, fresh cut from large blocks that are stored in refrigerated five gallon tins of brine. This is at a store that gets freshly baked pita bread five days a week.
Bravo, this is one of the more widely available cheeses that outpaces Camembert and Brie in the categories of character and flavor. I heartily urge you to look for Fromage D’Affinois. It is my favorite new find and makes an absolutely superior breakfast cheese when spread over a warm baguette. I recently had a three year old English Cheddar with so much character it nearly got up on hind legs and barked at me.
As to the OP, I prefer to take a decent quality cheese like Tillamook and then age it for a few more months in my icebox. At the first sign of mold, it is brought out, cleaned and consumed. Try doing this with a block of Jack or Cheddar. You’d be astonished at the additional character several weeks of extra aging can contribute to a regular cheese. I managed to age one supermarket Jack for an extra 3-6 months and it was nearly like a soft Parmesan by the time I unwrapped it. Well worth the effort.
The aforementioned Fromage D’Affinois and a good Feta or Cheddar are my current favorites.
For you Feta freaks, try placing slices of:
Feta
Ripe Tomato
Red Onion
Cucumber
along with pitted Kalamata olives and some shredded lettuce into a pocket of fresh pita bread. It is one of the most heavenly vegetarian sammiches you’ll ever taste.
The husband and I, when we have our occasional Ecuadorian Sunday Breakfasts (tostones, South American-style sausages, corn tortillas, eggs, and cheese) we serve Panela, which is a fresh cheese similar to taste and texture of mozzarella.
For every-day-type turkey sandwiches, I like to have sliced Muenster or Alpine Lace Swiss.
For snacking, I like a good fresh chevre spread on crackers with fig preserves. Yum.
I always like to have a baby loaf of Tillamook “Special Reserve” something or other (extra sharp cheddar) on hand. Sharp cheddar is so good. And they actually have this at my local grocery store, so that’s why I always have it. I love a lot of the sharp white cheddars as well (like the Grafton 4-year as mentioned above), but I have to go out of my way to get them.
Decent buffalo mozzarella (with the necessary tomato/basil/olive oil/balsamic vinegar) is excellent as well.
Give me Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheese! I think it’s actually called Hunter’s Seriously SHarp, and comes in a plaid package. It’s so sharp, you cut your tongue if you’re not careful!
I also LOVE provavlone. It’s the best cheese for a sandwich. Mozzerrella is also divine. Montery jack? Love it. Colby jack? Also very good. Aww, Hell, I like almost all cheeses!
Zenster, more details please! Are you saying that say I buy a block of Tillamook cheddar (which I happen to have in my fridge). It’s been under plastic wrap but is starting to grow mold on it. Rather than toss it, I can just wash it off, shave off the mouldy bits and eat the rest? Have I been tossing wonderfully good cheese in its prime?!!
Not sure if this is a brand name, or a proper name for a type of cheese - but I regularly buy ‘Cambazola’ (sp?) cheese.
I am sure there are better cheeses out there. I am too much of a lazy wimp to find out.
I didn’t read your OP when I posted. I confess to being a persistent OP ignorer (responding only to the title), which is especially bad when the OP was created by one of my SDMB ‘friends’.
I do acutally buy the ‘camberzola’ cheese more often than any other type, so to me it is the ‘everyday’ cheese. But I do like cheddar.
My least favourite cheese in the whole wide world is ironically the cheese made by the county I was born in and spent 95 percent of my life in - Lancashire. (Lancashire cheese). We were fed [nay, tortured with] that horrible stuff at school. It’s a wonder I like cheese at all after that ordeal.
There’s bad and then there’s bad. Cheddar cheese quickly developes a harder, slightly oranger [than the orange of good cheddar] ‘skin’ that is simply not worth eating.
