Thanks, to Jeff...

A big loaf of cheese??

The only time I buy pre-sliced cheese is when it's going to go on barbecued burgers. Waitrose appear to know this: in summer they sell really rather nice pre-sliced Jarlsberg. I can has Jarlsberger.

Peter

We often have a selection of crumbly cheese, smelly cheese, etc. in the fridge. I work close to Borough Market, which has a particularly good selection of cheese purveyors. For day-to-day cheesage, however, it's generally a mature Cheddar (grade 4 or higher).

We use a cheese planer to slice it. We have two cheese planers. One is originally from Norway and works really well. One is from the UK, and doesn't work that well.

For grating cheese, we used to have a box grater. Now we have a flat grater. It's easier to clean, but the cheese goes everywhere.

The cheese I cut for sandwiches and burgers tends to end up as more of a slab than a slice. I'm generally happy with just decent mature Cheddar.

Yep. Here's my usual. We have two loaves in the fridge.

Huh. Never heard of anybody referring to it as a loaf before. I've always just called it a block or maybe a wheel if its big enough.

Me, either. Must be a Great Lakes/Canada thing.

Very nice. We live walking distance from our local farmer's market, but it's not covered/indoors, so it only a weekend seasonal thing. There are a couple of artisan cheese makers there -- I had a good blueberry havarti, from Willamette Valley Cheese Co.. The other one I remember off the top of my head is Rogue Creamery.

I must have the UK version. I've never had much luck with cheese planers, and prefer a wire slicer.

Nah... Tillamook as an Oregon dairy farm co-operative. As a (former) Great Lakes area Canadian resident, I always used to call it a block, too. Still do, mostly. But if the cheese maker calls it a loaf, who am I to argue?

We get this type.

I don't eat a lot of cheese and pretty much get it for sandwich type things.

During our first trip to Italy in 2006, SWMBO & I discovered pecarino. Wow!

We hardy get any variety of it back here in Canada, but what we can find is now a regular item in the fridge.

Pecarino Romano is what we use in place of parmesan nowadays -- much better flavour for our tastes. And the crotenese from our local Italian shop is the closest we get to "real" pecarino flavour for snacks and sandwiches.

Note to Self: remember to figure out the cheese import rules before our return trip to Italy later this year!

Is this the best empegbbs topic ever ??? Love this !!!

The option for grating is missing, given the preference I always favour grated.

Cheers

Cris

There's always something missing, isn't there?

Sadly had to pick Dairy gives me gas, but years ago it would have been a big loaf and cutting it myself.

Cheese planes can be very hit or miss it seems. My mom has one that the wooden handle broke off years ago, but is the best one we ever found. We tried one after another but they were usually junk. I tried a wire one for a while, but wasn't a fan. It had a plastic piece to roll along the top, but it bent resulting in wavy slices of cheese.

To snack on? Why would you grate it for snacking? Seems unwieldy to me. I want to get the most cheese in my mouth that I can!

In that case, I'd like an option added to the poll for "Why slice it? I just bite big chunks off!"

But seriously, my wife and I are way too addicted to cheese. The one part of our fridge that NEVER runs low is the cheese drawer, and most of the time it's full with blocks and bags elsewhere.

We occasionally get pre-grated bags just because it's easier for throwing something together for dinner, but I much prefer to grate it myself when necessary (for recipes, not snacking ) because I think it tastes better.

For grating I either use a nice Oxo or for a large batch I'll use the food processor (and because it's fun). For slicing, we have four or five different cheese knives, though I'd love to get something better. We also have two or three cheese boards for serving, though that's only for company because for ourselves we just serve it in whatever manner is easiest

I like pretty much every kind of cheese out there, from the most bland to the stinkiest. I live for cheese Also, I don't have anything bad to say about the plastic-wrapped variety. I eat that stuff for nostalgia. There probably isn't even any cheese in it, but that doesn't bother me

Lastly, this probably isn't new to most of you, but three years ago when my wife and I were on our honeymoon (in Italy), we were introduced to the greatest idea in history: Parmesan cheese dipped in honey. It's one of my favorite things in the world! The only downside is that once you've eaten it in Italy, it's nearly impossible to reproduce where we live. We just can't seem to get Parmesan that's worth a damn (at least not without spending $50/lbd), and the honey around here isn't that great either. It has a weird aftertaste to it. But wow, we had that almost every day on that trip


Agreed!

Do you think there would be any mileage in the theory that by grating you increase the surface area of the cheese in your mouth, increasing the contact of cheese with tongue, so allowing you to enjoy the same cheesey goodness using your cheese stock in a more efficient way ???

I wouldn't say I like to snack on cheese as such, how ever it would often find itself grated onto a snack.

Cheers

Cris

Did anyone else vote in the one-option poll just to see how many others did?

Interesting theory I can't find any problem with it. I shouldn't have criticized. A man can eat his cheese any way he likes. I think it's a basic human right.

I'd also forgotten about all the tasty snacks that can be made with shredded cheese. Like nachos


I did Maybe you should create a poll to see how many others did...

I'm surprised no Venezuelan Beaver Cheese jokes yet.

In the US at least, most pre-grated cheese contains additives, like corn starch to keep it from sticking together, and things to help it melt more evenly, under the assumption that you're mostly going to use pre-grated cheese for melting onto something.

Which may explain the difference in taste.

Yeah, I was going to suggest that there had to be some kind of anti-caking agent in there. I suspect that they'll use the cheapest cheese they can find as well.

Right then, I'm definitely a cheese addict. Probably my favorite standbys are aged cheddars and fresh goat cheeses of the sort that come in a plastic tube and can be spread like butter (sometimes called a "chevre log"). For an occasion, my favorite cheese is Humboldt Fog. It's stupid expensive ($25/pound or more), but it's glorious. A recent favorite of mine is a brie-like cheese from Italy called Taleggio, which has more of a nuttiness to it than standard brie.

Seconded. There's something amazing entertaining about using the grating disk in our food processor. In two seconds, you blast through a block of cheese.

Yeah, I figured there was some less than desirable stuff in there, but it's so damned convenient sometimes


I'm sure my standby is not as good as yours, but have you tried the goat cheese from Costco? It's mighty tasty on salads and spread on crackers, and it's absurdly cheap. My local grocery store sells 4oz logs of chevre for around $5. For $4.50 Costco will sell you 16oz. It's incredible. They have amazing prices on their cheese that boggles my mind. Their price on mozzarella isn't 1/4 like the goat cheese, but it's better than half what you pay in a regular grocery store. We get brie there too, which is good because that stuff can get really expensive, and we occasionally like to make this panini with brie, raspberries, and honey that's heavenly.


ps-really? Chrome doesn't know the word panini? I really need to see if there's an alternate dictionary for the spellchecker, because it doesn't know some common words...

empegbbs is all about the cheese if the poll results are anything to go by. empegandcheesebbs IMO

And ten minutes later you're done cleaning and stowing the machine.

Cheers

Ah, that's what dishwashers are for, sir: lazy Americans!

Haha- this thread is great! I love this BBS.

I definitely fall into the lazy American camp on buying sliced cheese- but I do usually get it at the deli for sandwiches.

Costco is also the cheapest place around here to buy cheese. It's just less convenient to get to than something right in town tough. But when I'm there I almost always take a look at the cheese availability. A large wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano is an easy choice to make, since it keeps a relatively long time. It's also where I prefer to buy brie or camembert if I know I can use a whole round.

Soft goat's cheese is amazing on a bed of leafy greens with caramelized onions, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Even better if the cheese is a baked a little first. Works with grilled, roasted or BBQ chicken pieces added in there too.

For sammiches.

http://fresh.amazon.com/product?asin=B000R49EYM&sim=detail

While I'm partial to cheddar, my true vice has to be blue cheese, with Shropshire Blue being my favorite.

Yeah, that's my main problem with Costco, too. It's not convenient, and I refuse to go on the weekends (way too packed). I usually have to wait until I need a bunch of stuff from there like trash bags and stuff.

The thing that puzzles me about Costco is the extreme fluctuations in price differences between products in Coscto and normal stores.

Cheese, for example, can be 50-75% off standard prices, as I mentioned. In other cases (like paper towels, I believe), I've noticed Costco's prices are actually higher! I really would love to know why I can get goat cheese for 1/4 the price of the regular stores. It's even the same brand my local Giant carries.


I have to ask: pargiano regiano? Parmigiano-Reggiano?

I'll have to check their prices on that stuff the next time I'm there. I seem to remember that being one of the few types that wasn't discounted all that much, which is a shame because it's some of my favorite stuff on earth!

We keep on average around 8 different cheeses in the fridge at all times as the whole family are cheese addicts. Hamish prefers strong french cheeses and mexican chilli cheeses, Lexie and I err on the extra mature cheddar side of things, and we keep some stilton, caerphilly and brie around for general purpose hand-to-hand combat.

Parmigiano Reggiano for the table (occasionally Pecorino) and really liking Norwegian Brunost (which feels like plasticine/chocolate)

Anybody tried Stichelton? Its made exactly like Stilton but as the PDO rules for Stilton require pasturisation, they're not legally allowed to call it that.

My favorite cheeses include:

Bleu Cheese
Havarti (sometimes called butter cheese)
Goat Cheese
Super Sharp Cheddar
American Swiss (more below)

Basically, almost any kind of cheese. I don't remember the name of the brand, but the deli I use to work at (during college) had a "healthy" brand of cheese. That stuff was vile. Other than that, I don't look for specific brands.

I only saw American Swiss at the deli I worked at, and haven't found it out in AZ yet. Basically, it was White American mixed with Swiss. It was a white cheese without the holes and the mingling of flavors was heavenly.

Once, yes. I found it wasn't particularly tangy or flavorful. I typically buy smaller logs at the local boring supermarket and they're cheap and tasty. The high-dollar stuff is another world entirely, which I save for special occasions.

This is one area I need to explore more. I'm fine with goat cheese, so it's become a favorite replacement for other kinds of cheeses I can no longer enjoy. I tend to always have one of the spreadable Chavrielittle pyramid containers in the fridge to snack on.

Back when I could enjoy cheese, swiss tended to be my favorite. Found excuses to have it on a ton of things.

At least around me, the Arabian markets have lots of goat cheese at very low prices. Between that and Costco, we're happy.

Don't type and run...

Not sliced, but my favorite cheese in the world is this:
WSU Cougar Gold.

Why did they wrap the can (can!?) in caution tape?

Canned cheese? o.O