Cheese Admiration and Celebration
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Alatariel75 wrote: »See, this is dangerous, I just discovered I can get Oaxaca cheese, but only in 1kg lots... Hmmmmm
Well, some cheeses freeze OK. They usually get a little more dry/crumbly, so something like Oaxaca might get . . . rubbery? That wouldn't be good. Might be worth the experiment, though.
I still have some. I can stick a little hunk in the freezer overnight, see what happens. I like experiments!
ETA: OK, it's in the freezer. I'll report back in a day or two.2 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »See, this is dangerous, I just discovered I can get Oaxaca cheese, but only in 1kg lots... Hmmmmm
Well, some cheeses freeze OK. They usually get a little more dry/crumbly, so something like Oaxaca might get . . . rubbery? That wouldn't be good. Might be worth the experiment, though.
I still have some. I can stick a little hunk in the freezer overnight, see what happens. I like experiments!
ETA: OK, it's in the freezer. I'll report back in a day or two.
You're amazing! Thank you!1 -
I can't eat cheese anymore for health reasons but-
I grew up in a Sicilian family on my dad's side. Growing up we were in New York and got the BEST CHEESE EVER! It was truly authentic (1970's) whole parmesaun we would grate ourselves, mozzarella, hard cheeses and ricotta.
I would take a ball of provolone and melt it in microwave on a plate and just eat it.
One of my favorites was my mom's grilled cheese. She would use swiss, provolone and American on buttered bread. I also loved pimento cheese sandwiches.
I'm plant based now but have managed to find specialty vegan cheeses at the farmers market near me. They are made from cashew , sunflower or pumpkin seed. Nothing like store brands. They are really expensive but I treat myself every few weekends4 -
Can I just put a vote in for mozzarella? It’s undervalued as it’s not a really strong cheese but sliced with flavoursome tomatoes, little bit of olive oil drizzled over, salt and pepper - it’s pretty tasty. Especially with sourdough 🤤3
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claireychn074 wrote: »Can I just put a vote in for mozzarella? It’s undervalued as it’s not a really strong cheese but sliced with flavoursome tomatoes, little bit of olive oil drizzled over, salt and pepper - it’s pretty tasty. Especially with sourdough 🤤
Why, yes you may! And I'd observe that there are several types of mozzarella, each of the ones I've tried being tasty and useful in particular eating contexts. I'm talking fresh mozz, buffalo mozz, etc. Good stuff!2 -
I can't eat cheese anymore for health reasons but-
I grew up in a Sicilian family on my dad's side. Growing up we were in New York and got the BEST CHEESE EVER! It was truly authentic (1970's) whole parmesaun we would grate ourselves, mozzarella, hard cheeses and ricotta.
I would take a ball of provolone and melt it in microwave on a plate and just eat it.
One of my favorites was my mom's grilled cheese. She would use swiss, provolone and American on buttered bread. I also loved pimento cheese sandwiches.
I'm plant based now but have managed to find specialty vegan cheeses at the farmers market near me. They are made from cashew , sunflower or pumpkin seed. Nothing like store brands. They are really expensive but I treat myself every few weekends
I used to do that microwave thing with a thin layer of grated parmesan-type hard cheese, too: Made a nice crispy, delicious, lacy-looking round, if I watched the timing carefully.
I'm glad you're finding tasty vegan cheeses: I've mostly only had those as an ingredient in foods, like in tacos or sandwiches or something like that at restaurants. They were tasty, but I don't know much about the brands and such in that context. Those cheeses are welcome on this thread, too, in posts of a personal-enthusiasms nature. 🙂
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I feel like such a hillbilly! (I live in Southeast Michigan, USA.) Half of these cheeses I haven’t heard of. If I had any sort of store around me with a separate WALK IN cheese containing room I would cry. Feta and sharp cheddar are pretty high up on my list. I will try any cheese once. I’m sure you’ve all had the flaming Greek cheese? Saganaki, that’s good during a night out too!
Mountains of cheese, piles of cheese, aisles of cheese, rooms of cheese, oh my!1 -
I feel like such a hillbilly! (I live in Southeast Michigan, USA.) Half of these cheeses I haven’t heard of. If I had any sort of store around me with a separate WALK IN cheese containing room I would cry. Feta and sharp cheddar are pretty high up on my list. I will try any cheese once. I’m sure you’ve all had the flaming Greek cheese? Saganaki, that’s good during a night out too!
Mountains of cheese, piles of cheese, aisles of cheese, rooms of cheese, oh my!
Hate to tell ya, Joan, but I live in Michigan, too: Lansing area. Maybe you need a field trip to Lansing's Horrocks? That's where my cheese room/multi-cheese case photos early in this thread came from. Depending on how SE you are in Michigan, it's not out of the question for a day trip!
Saganaki in Greek Town (Detroit) is associated with many great memories, for me. Opa!1 -
Ah! I grew up in Grand Ledge! (The 80s) I remember Horrocks well, the bulk cookies and candy! I think from what I’ve heard it’s a much bigger place now. I can definitely make the trip, I’m 10 minutes north of Ann Arbor (a place I try to avoid but I’m sure there’s good cheese somewhere there.) I’ve seen your posts on here and for some reason I thought you were from the UK! 🤪1
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Also, many a night in Greektown in my younger bar hopping days! 🔥0
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Ah! I grew up in Grand Ledge! (The 80s) I remember Horrocks well, the bulk cookies and candy! I think from what I’ve heard it’s a much bigger place now. I can definitely make the trip, I’m 10 minutes north of Ann Arbor (a place I try to avoid but I’m sure there’s good cheese somewhere there.) I’ve seen your posts on here and for some reason I thought you were from the UK! 🤪
Also, Oh MI Chocolates in St. Johns - just sayin'. A little spendy, but worth it. If you look at their web site, you'll think I'm saying that out of some kind of food purity religion (because they're hypoallergenic, organic, mostly vegan, etc.). But no. I'm saying that because they're fabulous.
I've eaten a lot of chocolate in my life, some of it pretty darned good. t's just narrowly possible that the chocolate truffles I ate years back from the store on Jackson Square in New Orleans were better than Oh MI Chocolates . . . but maybe not. Certainly top two of all time.
The Oh MI are made with coconut oil, so they must be refrigerated. But it also means that they melt below human body temperature: A pool of delicious melt-y chocolate richness, created right there in your mouth. So good!
Horrocks sometimes has some, in a refrigerator case in their salad bar/hot bar region, but they're often out of stock. Field trip! 😉2 -
@Alatariel75, I'm back, with the report.
Experimental conditions:
I put some Oaxaca in the freezer on July 27, fairly late in the day IIRC, in a small tempered glass dish with a snap-on plastic top (fairly tight-fitting). I took it out earlier today, 7/29 to thaw, early afternoon. It's now a bit after 5 PM. So, frozen for something around 36 hours or so, maybe? Thawed for 3-4 hours? (I should've noted times better. Bad experimentalizer! 😆)
I had to hunt around for some bread for this experiment, found some Georgia Candy Roaster squash focaccia in my chest freezer. What I did was make my best effort to cut off the same-sized bit of cheese from my refrigerated chunk, and the frozen/thawed chunk. (I admit, these were pretty small chunks, like 4-5 grams, because while I was interested in the results, I didn't want to spend up lots of calories running it.)
Then I set up 3 samples: One set to taste plain, one set to microwave on bread until the cheese melted, one set to heat in my cast iron pan on bread until melted (the open faced grilled cheese sandwich condition). With apologies, I didn't want to try broiling tiny chunks.
This is what the samples looked like, pre-eating. In each case, the formerly-frozen sample is on the left, the just-refrigerated on the right. From top, moving clockwise, it's microwaved, cast iron heated, plain. (Ignore the rainbows, it's just the prisms in my kitchen window catching some sun.)
Experimental results:
The microwaved versions got a little messy, so I did a little scraping-back-on of the cheese, so the two look a little different (and it's possible that one spot on the plate got warmer in the micro than the other, too).
I have to say, I perceived little or no difference in texture or taste, in any of the samples, between the frozen and not-frozen Oaxaca. It's possible but not assured that the plain (no bread) cold sample of the non-frozen one was a tiny bit firmer, and the frozen a tiny bit softer, but I'm not convinced. (I did notice that after thawing, the outer surface of the frozen cheese was slightly moist - maybe condensation?) Other than that, and that not certain, I couldn't tell any difference in either texture or flavor.
It's possible that if the freezing period had been longer (days/weeks) there would've been more effect . . . but I was assuming you didn't want to wait weeks to hear back. I don't think there was much effect just from the freezing itself. I assume that making sure the frozen cheese was well-sealed from drying out would help avoid problems with longer-term freezing.
If your huge chunk of Oaxaca isn't prohibitively expensive, I personally wouldn't hesitate to freeze part of it for later thawing and use. I think it'd still be good, and similar if not identical in texture/behavior.3 -
@AnnPT77 you are a gem!! Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful experiment! A kilo is under $20, so I'm going to purchase and freeze it in chunks - I have a vacuum sealer, so I'll seal them up to freeze too. Thank you!! I shall be making black bean chilli for lunches with the cheese this week in your honour!
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Alatariel75 wrote: »@AnnPT77 you are a gem!! Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful experiment! A kilo is under $20, so I'm going to purchase and freeze it in chunks - I have a vacuum sealer, so I'll seal them up to freeze too. Thank you!! I shall be making black bean chilli for lunches with the cheese this week in your honour!
Good show: Enjoy your chili!
If you think of it, come back and let us know how the longer freezing period works out for you - the vacuum sealing seems perfect for the best possible results.2 -
I had a little cheese celebration tonight and thought of this thread.
12 month cheddar
Parmesan
Bellavitano gold
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Our cheese haul from a recent trip to Amsterdam. Whenever we go on vacation we spend an hour at the supermarket before heading home. Aged goat gouda (there is not much left) is one of my favourite hard cheeses. Hubby's favourite is the Goudse belegen (=slightly aged).
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At the risk of triggering @Lietchi 😂
Every time I see this thread I think of the Gjetost
I wrote about on the first page…
Finally gave in and bought myself some from Amazon…crazy price!
Here’s a picture of a very small, very delicious treat I had after lunch today. Because the cheese is best cut wafer thin a little goes a long way, fortunately. 12g here with a few slices of a William Pear. 71 calories but tasted like so much more in terms of ‘a treat’! 😋
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I’m so excited! In an unusual display of serendipity I came across a recipe for making Gjetost at home. It involves simply reducing whey to a quarter of it’s original volume and whisking the resulting caramelised whey with a little double cream.
Thanks to @springlering62 I have been considering making my own Skyr at home, haven’t got to it just yet (fear of the unknown!)…
So I’m going to make a leap in the dark and try the Skyr, so I can use the leftover whey for a Gjetost experiment - it was somewhat putting me off that I’d end up wasting that byproduct of the Skyr since I’d not use it for baked goods as I know Spring does.
Will update with either success or failure!2 -
@BarbaraHelen2013 i had to look that up. That sounds extremely interesting!
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I went to a cheese paradise today. I wanted something of everything! I only ended up getting aged smoked Gouda, dill havarti and some Brie bites. I really wanted some Michigan tomato basil but there were only big chunks and I’m saving my money for an overseas trip in December.0
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I went to a cheese paradise today. I wanted something of everything! I only ended up getting aged smoked Gouda, dill havarti and some Brie bites. I really wanted some Michigan tomato basil but there were only big chunks and I’m saving my money for an overseas trip in December.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! (Assuming we're talking Horrocks, since you said you planned to go there today. It's also pretty much a produce paradise, a beer/wine paradise, in season a garden plants paradise, and more.)1 -
I’m going through a squeaky-cheese phase. The UK has been suffering a heatwave and we’re not good at this kind of heat, so I haven’t wanted to eat anything heavy. Dry-fried halloumi with fresh tomatoes and melon, drizzled with lemon olive oil and some black pepper has been gorgeous 😀 it’s only from the local supermarket so not the best quality, but still delicious.4
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After a brief Sar-Cov-19 related absence, the annual cheese rolling is back. I really want to go one year, although the chances of an injury are astronomical.
The guy in the Union Jack shirt at the end of this video is the man, the myth, the legend Chris Anderson (who has won the Double Gloucester around 22 times. He doesn't like it, he only like Cheddar.)
https://youtu.be/qjSUk9o-D6E 6 -
Before vegan.. Goat cheese, the soft kind. OMG. If I did decide to include dairy it would be goat cheese! It's so creamy good. My past roomate used to have rice cakes with goat cheese and avocado. I wish there was a plant based one. That was quality like the high end farmers market.
I also loved loved loved my great grandma's Mac and cheese. Wow. Soo much cheese, cooked with a bit of crunchy on top from browning cheese. She was old world Lithuanian
My dad's side is Sicilian. My Aunt made A-Mazing manicotti and baked ziti, lasagna and chicken parmesaun.
Yes I has an abundance of cheese in my childhood.
Not to forget the REAL New York pizza...mmm2 -
Today's snack was dedicated to cheese (about 1/2 of the wedge). No crackers or other distractions, as it was delicious as it was.
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MelodiousMermaid wrote: »Today's snack was dedicated to cheese (about 1/2 of the wedge). No crackers or other distractions, as it was delicious as it was.
Yum! Coincidentally, I ate a small wedge of cranberry Wensleydale last night myself - the last delicious bit of it I had on hand. Like you, I ate it plain: In my case, sliced ultra-thin into sheets that would melt on my tongue, to make it last and savor it as long as possible. So good!
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I can't eat cheese anymore for health reasons but-
I grew up in a Sicilian family on my dad's side. Growing up we were in New York and got the BEST CHEESE EVER! It was truly authentic (1970's) whole parmesaun we would grate ourselves, mozzarella, hard cheeses and ricotta.
I would take a ball of provolone and melt it in microwave on a plate and just eat it.
One of my favorites was my mom's grilled cheese. She would use swiss, provolone and American on buttered bread. I also loved pimento cheese sandwiches.
I'm plant based now but have managed to find specialty vegan cheeses at the farmers market near me. They are made from cashew , sunflower or pumpkin seed. Nothing like store brands. They are really expensive but I treat myself every few weekends
I used to do that microwave thing with a thin layer of grated parmesan-type hard cheese, too: Made a nice crispy, delicious, lacy-looking round, if I watched the timing carefully.
I'm glad you're finding tasty vegan cheeses: I've mostly only had those as an ingredient in foods, like in tacos or sandwiches or something like that at restaurants. They were tasty, but I don't know much about the brands and such in that context. Those cheeses are welcome on this thread, too, in posts of a personal-enthusiasms nature. 🙂
I have a glass cooktop now, so it's harder to use my cast iron. It used to be my go-to cookware for everything. Sometimes when the pan was hot from cooking and I wanted to cool it off, I would toss in a few chunks of sharp cheddar cheese. It would melt, then it would bubble and get crisp on the bottom. A careful flip, and next thing you know there's this crispy, cheesy goodness. There was always oil left in the pan when done - perfect for keeping the season on the cast iron. And yes, it wasn't just to cool the pan. Sometimes I'd just make it because it was so good. I used to have a name for it.
I haven't had a microwave since the early '90s.
And, I just have to say:- Cambozola - sometimes described as "Blue Brie," although it's not.
- Humboldt Fog - if you haven't had this goat cheese, take out a home equity loan and go buy yourself a few ounces because.... <drool>
I'm actually going to pick up some string cheese tomorrow for the raft trip. It doesn't really need to be refrigerated, so it makes a handy snack I can keep in one of the dryboxes near my legs in the rower's bay.
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