American cheese

[Pepper Pig Profile]

I thought this was rather interesting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48915578

[Binky Profile]

Yes, I too thought it interesting.

American cheeses must have come a long way since we lived there. The stores were full of Monterey Jack, a strange coloured cheese slice meant for sandwiches, and a horrible plasticky manufactured cheese filled with bits of jalapenos. In fact, talking to my husband this morning, we don't remember eating much cheese at all when we lived there.

The Americans are very clever though, and if their renaissance beer and wine making is anything to go by, their craft cheeses will be very good.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

St Ina (Garden) has done a couple of episodes encouraging her fans to look for and buy American artisan / gourmet cheeses, and I did think they looked good

She focused on New England but I think the massive farmer’s market movement in the USA probably has an influence

[Binky Profile]

Ina Garten is a hoot. She always has huge pans, and an enormous oven, and the quantities she cooks seem obscene to me. It's often just a nice little supper for her and Geoffrey, so why she makes huge cakes and pints of sauces is a mystery to me.

(I have her book 'Barefoot Contessa' and she was a sylph when first married......)

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I read the article too,Pepper. I thought it was fascinating!
Since I´m off to the USA next week, I´ll be taking a close look at some of the Artisan local cheeses.
I could eat cheese all day and night!

[Joanbunting Profile]

You and me both KK

I had a couple of very acceptable cheeses when we in Virginia 6 years ago but my goodness they took some finding.

[Binky Profile]

I recall having Canadian cheddar now that I think about it.

Also, one of the states (Wisconsin, I think) has a long German and Norwegian heritage. They make a cheese in a sausage shape, like the German smoked cheeses, but again it's what I would call 'manufactured'

[jeral Profile]

There was an article a month or two ago wherein proper cheesemakers in the US expressed a hope that there would be more recognition of their cheeses, regretting the popularity and market saturation of processed cheeses they were up against. The biggest obstacle of course is that people like the recognisable melty cheese used so much.

Ocado sell vegan pepperjack cheese slices which work well for some uses. Not for cheese lovers needless to say. I wonder why we don't make a pepper cheese here even though various other additions to cheese are not uncommon.

I remember the Austrian smoked cheese with ham bits "sausages" in orange plastic wrapper. Do they still exist?

[mark111757 Profile]

A very nice write on cheese in central new York.

Gotta throw this in...https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/fing ... l-new-york

Sadly tho familiar can be said about cheeses from the UK and Europe. Import tarrifs are ridiculous. wanted to get legit cheese to make a tarteflette. Raw milk cheese, next to impossible to get.

When I was working at the store, for quite awhile we sold stinking bishop.

There was a trend as I called it, for mega sharp Cheddar cheese and there were Canadian one's that foot the bill very nicely. Like this....

https://www.amazon.com/igourmet-Quebec- ... W9GE25QP0J

The longer it ages the sharper it gets. Like night and day difference between that and Velveeta. Not cheese I know but the wee ones seem to love it.

One to tell, if you are on WIC or public assistance, it will cover only real cheese, like sliceable land o lakes in the deli or the 8 ounce slabs of cheese. It does not cover the stuff wrapped in cellophane and is known as processed cheese food.

I hope that article will shatter the myths on american cheese being all Velveeta and cheese whiz.

For my money, ALDI here in the States does a great pepper jack. For me just the right amount of pepper and the cheese is smooth and not pasty or gritty. DEE-LlSH!!

Thanks for a great post.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Mark, I don’t know what a pepper jack is but it sounds a million miles away from anything I would consider proper cheese.

[mark111757 Profile]

Pepper

Here is what wiki has to offer on it. What I refer to is the stuff that has been aged a month....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Jack

_Still very yummy

[Pampy Profile]

I sometimes use Monterey Jack for pizzas.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

mega sharp Cheddar cheese and there were Canadian one's that foot the bill very nicely.

In the days of my youth (Wish I hadn't started the sentence like that - now distracted by a Led Zeppelin song) we were not in the Common Market, we had 'real money' and there was a shop called the 'Home & Colonial'. There were not many foreign cheeses available, but I remember Canadian cheddar being very strong and New Zealand cheddar being very mild.

Where I lived, there wasn't a lot of demand for foreign cheese unless it was similar to familiar British ones, as above. My Dad liked Danish Blue, so that was around. I guess there must have been Brie & Camembert but they were viewed with suspicion of course, being French. There was a local ish Italian ex-POW community, there must also have been Italian cheeses, don't recall seeing them. All this changed in the 1970s with bigger shops, more travel, Common Market.

[Binky Profile]

I was at our local market cheesemonger's stall and spotted French Gruyere and Swiss Gruyere.

"What's the difference?" I ask.

"The French is £2 for 100gram, the Swiss is £6 for 100gram" sez him.

I bought the French.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

If you see cage aged gruyere that’s the business

The other foreign cheese that was around in our youth BM was Parmesan dust in talcum powder style shakers. One lived in the larder for a long time as mum didn’t cook pasta

I remember going into the old Sainsbury in Belsize Park, the small grocery that was all dark wood, marble and glass, and buying a slice of Brie in 1972. The girl behind the counter was horrified by this smelly runny substance, and offered to find a less runny piece. I declined

[Sakkarin Profile]

Odd how nowadays it's the runniness of the cheese in that first pic in the article that draws me to it!

There are still a few cheesish avenues I will not tread though, that maggotty one springs to mind.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

...that must be Casu Marzu, the Sardinian delicacy! I´ve just watched a U tube on that.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

The other foreign cheese that was around in our youth BM was Parmesan dust in talcum powder style shakers. One lived in the larder for a long time as mum didn’t cook pasta

Of course, I had overlooked that. It didn't register with me until the Vesta meals came out. I started to dabble with cooking in the late 60s I suppose. It was many years before I had proper Parmesan

[Binky Profile]

Mustn't forget Dairylea cheese triangles - packaged with a pickled onion and a Ritz cracker, for the more sophisticated diner.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Some food developer somewhere must once have tasted the very first Dairylea Cheese Triangle and decided it was a great idea for a new product, a block of yellow slime welded into a silver foil package that couldn't be opened without a special tool (a tool which has yet to be invented).

I wonder if he was the same one who invented Camp Coffee?

EDIT: And in the marketing meeting they decided to have a video with lots of kids shouting. "A taste of the country"?. A taste of the factory more like!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2ESFYqMaH4