cheese

[PLUMPUDDING]

What prompted you to ask the question Diane? We seem to be all agreed that it's pretty useless.
What are your favourite cheeses?
We know Westi likes smelly cheeses.
I like a good mature cheddar, creamy Lancashire, crumbly Cheshire (with fruit cake), and dolce latte.
I try different ones from the cheese stall in our market too but can't remember all the funny names.
I'm not keen on very strong smelly cheese or the rubbery Dutch and Swiss ones. I'm not attracted to the cheeses with fruit in as a rule but there is a nice Wensleydale with lemon and there's a nice rich cheddar with walnuts.

[Geoff]

Any hard strong cheese without additives or infections (don't like blue). Lancashire will be expensive in Yorkshire when the post Brexit tolls kick in.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I'd not thought about that Geoff, don't be too frivolous or Johnboy will get upset

[retropants]

My local farmers market has a cheese stall, locally made. They have a cheddar with ginger, sounds awful, but my husband loves it!

[Primrose]

I only really became conscious of mature cheddar when I became an adult. I suspect that may have been that when I was a child, almost until my early teenage years all food including cheese, was on ration and there certainly wasn't time for cheese manufacturers to allow it to mature - presumably it had to be rushed out for sale as soon as it was ready as there was such a shortage of it.

Perhaps my parents had got used to the flavour of it because thats all I remember them buying when I lived at home. I remember my first purchase of mature cheddar as an independent adult, wondering how it might differ from the ordinary cheddar I was used to eating. The difference was incredible and I,ve never knowingly purchased mild or "ordinary" cheddar again. Even for cooking I wouldn,t touch it but if I was forced for some reason to use it I'd always add a dash of ordinary mustard to heighten up the taste.

[Diane]

Well, an interesting and lively debate indeed.

I was just wondering, out loud, as you do, what was the point of buying mild cheese. I personally think it's a waste of money as all you need to do, when following a cheesy recipe, and don't want it too strong, is to put less in. I like a cheese with a bit of character - blue, smelly, holey, creamy - I like them all as long as they taste of something. My favourite snack is a crisp juicy apple with a hunk of strong chedder.

[Primrose]

Another interesting factor of certain cheeses - does anybody else find that tomatoes and blue cheeses together are a dreadful combination and taste awful together? I often have tomatoes in salads as well as cheese, but would never put tomatoes together with any type of blue cheese. Don't know whether its the acid in the tomatoes which reacts with enzymes in the Stilton, Roquefort, Cambazola etc but you can put blue cheese with other fruits containing acid like peach or nectarine and it tastes fine.

Or do i just have peculiar taste buds?

[Westi]

It would be nice if Johnboy returned, he has answered my queries many times with sound advice that I still practice but back to cheese! Mild does not seem to be an option (understandably, tastes like wax) as do in my opinion some of the Dutch ones.

What is everyone's favourite then? To me nothing beats a nice strong cheddar, I like blue cheese of any type generally for the tang, some nice goat cheeses out there & am currently getting a bit of an addiction to this whipped cream cheese from M&S as nice to have crackers for lunch at work for a change. The only mistake to date with this is I offered crackers & cheese to my work colleagues to have a taste & find they are now drifting in my office when they note the pot in the work fridge!

[Diane]

Blue cheese and a nice ripe juicy pear is a great combination.

[retropants]

cheddar and strawberry jam sandwiches are a rare treat.

[Shallot Man]

cheddar and strawberry jam sandwiches are a rare treat.

Well worth a try.

[retropants]

yes, and the jam must be homemade

[vivienz]

I'm no fan of mild cheese but hubby loves those nasty little Babybel cheeses. Whenever I try one, all I can taste is the wax coating. But then, he also loves dairylea triangles and all the own brand equivalents.

A few weeks ago I went to the annual Sturminster Newton cheese festival and had one of the best cheese toasties ever. I'm not usually into gimmicks, but these were cooked between hot bricks and used the most fantastic cheddar with bits of spring onion in the cheese. Gorgeous. The range of British cheeses there was amazing and, of course, there were loads of samples going.

I do find some of the French cheeses overwhelming - not much cheesiness but lots of ammonia. Not to my taste.

[alan refail]

I have never found any of the cheaper commercially produced cheddars, whatever their strength, to be particularly pleasant. OK for cooking with I suppose. And don't get me started on all the multifarious types with bits of fruit and what have you in them! There are so many excellent cheeses from here and abroad which taste like cheese was intended to taste.

And now to be flippant.

How do we eat our cheese in Wales?

[tigerburnie]

Cheese is nice with a strong peaty single malt whisky of an evening, Black Bomber being a particularly good one with Ardbeg or Laphroaig.