cheese
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My favourite cheese used to be Dovedale Blue but sadly the creamery closed and was taken over and the new creamery produces is Yorkshire Blue which is a taste-alike. I buy Yorkshire Blue as a half cheese and I then store for at least six weeks before even trying to consume it. In that 6 weeks the cheese has taken on a real maturity and the flavour increasd immesurably and has vastly increased the pleasure of eating it. The FSA at reading this would throw their hands up in horor because this is a long time after the FSA would have you throw it away. Cheese boards in resturants are really a thing of the past due in part by the FSA ruling which means most cheeses have to be thrown out before they reach the maturity that made them famous in the first place. The example I give is Camambert Cheese which I want to run across the plate when cut into but instead is a hard white and virtually tastless blob on your plate. Cheeses need to be matured before eating. I grew up in the days before refrigerators were the norm and freezers were totally unheard of. My mother made her own cheese and it was matured and full of flavour. I asked a cheese maker this week if cheese can be frozen and the only answer I got was a very sharp intake of breath and at that point I realised that I had touched a very raw nerve. She later said that word cheese and freezer should never be in the same sentence.
Does anybody else store and mature their cheese before consuming it?
JB.
Does anybody else store and mature their cheese before consuming it?
JB.
- alan refail
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The whole idea of cheese was to preserve precious milk. It seems ironic now that people are suggesting freezing it to conserve it! I rarely eat cheese before it has reached its use-by date. I agree with you about Camembert and the same goes for Brie. What is sold now is little better than a chalky lump tasting of nothing.
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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When I get down to the parmesan rind I slice as much off and share it with the dog when I cannot get any more cheese off it I give it to the the dog.
Many a time I have taken cheese out of fridge to find it has gone green, still eat it though.
Many a time I have taken cheese out of fridge to find it has gone green, still eat it though.
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I think Johnbiy is absolutely right about some of these soft cheeses. i,m sure they were it meant to be eaten and enjoyed in their "matire" state. At least if you take them home you can perhaps keep them until they're in a mature enough state to eat them how you enjoy them but I do find storage sometimes difficult, even in when refrigerated. Some of them can develop an ammonia taste whenripe and I,m wondering if there are any ways of enjoying them in a mature state without this smell developing.
Is it something to do with the way they are wrapped or unwrapped or simply part of the maturing process which cant be halted?
Is it something to do with the way they are wrapped or unwrapped or simply part of the maturing process which cant be halted?
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Johnboy, when you say store for 6 weeks, do you mean an old-fashionned pantry?
- alan refail
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Primrose wrote:I think Johnbiy is absolutely right about some of these soft cheeses. i,m sure they were it meant to be eaten and enjoyed in their "matire" state. At least if you take them home you can perhaps keep them until they're in a mature enough state to eat them how you enjoy them but I do find storage sometimes difficult, even in when refrigerated. Some of them can develop an ammonia taste whenripe and I,m wondering if there are any ways of enjoying them in a mature state without this smell developing.
Is it something to do with the way they are wrapped or unwrapped or simply part of the maturing process which cant be halted?
Cheese was never intended to be shrink-wrapped in plastic, any more than it was intended for refrigeration or freezing!
http://www.johneatscheese.com/blog/2014 ... e-ammonia/
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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Who would have thought cheese could excite us like this Anyway I still get carried away at the cheese stall in the market and buy more than I can eat before some starts to get past its best so a mixture of the various odds and ends grated is very handy for gratins when a cheesy flavour is all you need.
- alan refail
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Just because it rhymes with cheese, it
Doesn't mean that you should freeze it!
Doesn't mean that you should freeze it!
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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I agree about letting cheese mature, although without a traditional marble or slate slabbed larder it tends to get a bit too hot or a bit too cool.
Maybe I need a soft terracotta cover that does evaporative cooling. (I had a wine cooler like that)
Maybe I need a soft terracotta cover that does evaporative cooling. (I had a wine cooler like that)
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
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Many years ago we had a corner shop near bye her cheese was the best you could buy nothing like the stuff supermarkets sell today ,she kept it in a cooler wrapped in bread bags the greasproof type that are no longer used