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Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

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Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby PatsyMFagan » Fri Jul 31, 2020 1:43 pm

My PC guru absolutely insists the ONLY cheese for a quiche/flan should be made from UNpasteurised cheddar .. as per his late mother's recipe.

Today I took advantage of the 3 for £5 offer of different cheeses from the Tesco Deli counter as I noticed that they had Keens Traditional unpasteurised cheddar (I also bought Neufchatel, Iberico, Belton Farm Red Fox, Parmesan, and Jarlesberg - all priced indivdually at £2.75 - so saving £6.50 and I do like a bit of cheese ;) )

I have had a nibble of the cheddar, but apart from the fact that I would expect any artisan cheddar to have it's own individual taste, should I expect it to taste that much different ?

What do others think ? TBH I wouldn't waste it on a cheese flan - rather just with crackers :yum

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby karadekoolaid » Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:07 am

I think your PC guru should get a life, Patsy - unless his last name is Blumenthal! :gonzo
I am a total cheese freak, but I do consciously recall ever having eaten an unpasteurised Cheddar. I may have, in fact I probably have, but I don`t know where or when.
Soft French cheeses, on the other hand, are infinitely better if they`re made from unpasteurised milk. Brie, Camembert, Livarot, Pont LÈvecque, Reblochon - the flavour is 100 times better.

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:13 am

:lol: Yes, I think he does . ;)

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby Suffs » Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:14 am

If that’s the only Cheddar you have in the house and you simply must make a quiche today and don’t want to go to the shops then use it ... but by the time it’s been baked it won’t taste any different whether you use Dairycrest’s Davidstow Extra Mature cheddar or Keen’s Unpasteurised Extra Mature cheddar. But I do use a mature or extra mature cheddar for baking ... no point in a flavourless quiche.

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:26 am

I think the idea is that the naturally occurring wild bacteria and mould in unpasteurised milk add to the development of the cheese flavour in much the same way as the different strains of wild yeast add to the flavour of sourdough bread

There’s a similar idea behind “natural” wine which is made using only the wild yeast on the skin of the fruit

I’ve no idea how effective it is - certainly most good PDO or appellation cheeses are made with unpasteurised milk, because that’s the traditional recipe. I wonder if they can top up the gut bacteria (no idea)?

The exception is Stilton, for which the PDO standard requires pasteurised milk. Then there’s Stichelton, a traditional style Stilton-like blue cheese made outside the PDO geographic area using raw milk. I prefer to most Stilton but that may be because they so carefully worked out the process from the ground up
http://stichelton.co.uk/the_cheese.html

Unpasteurised raw milk and cheese can spread s diseases such as listeria and is unsuitable for pregnant women and the immunocompromised. I once asked Neal’s Yard for a pregnancy friendly pasteurised cheese board, a request they are used to

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby Badger's Mate » Sat Aug 01, 2020 6:04 pm

After an initially cautious approach, the only foods Mrs B has been advised to avoid post transplant are raw molluscs and unpasteurised dairy, though both are fine if cooked. For this reason, over the last 10 years I've generally kept the kitchen free of raw milk cheeses, unless they are very clearly identifiable, lest they inadvertently appear on a cheeseboard. We've had a lot of pasteurised cheese. Some is mass produced and maybe not as characterful as an artisanal version of the same cheese made with raw milk. Some, like Binham Blue, Cashel blue or Strathdon are really good cheeses. Hey, Stilton ain't bad! There are some lovely aged Goudas or Pecorinos made with pasteurised milk too. Several people on here have noted their fondness for the new crunchy cheddars. I wonder if they have the crunchiness added, but Gouda exhibits similar tendencies from about 36 months onwards.

It's one factor amongst several that might conspire to make the cheese wonderful or less so. The sourdough analogy is a perfect one because there are certain characteristics of sourdough bread, such as the crust and crumb, which some people love. That's not to say that a yeasted loaf can't be nice of course. However, we accidentally received a sliced wrapped sourdough in a supermarket delivery recently and it had neither the crust nor crumb of a fresh sourdough loaf. It toasted OK but even then didn't have that particular sourdough toast texture. None of the good characteristics of sourdough, all of the bad ones of sliced wrapped bread. Another good example is beer. Most of the truly outstanding beers I've had were unpasteurised, but so were all of the truly horrible ones - they'd gone off, and there are some perfectly good pasteurised beers.

There's certainly no point in seeking out an unpasteurised cheese to cook with, unless the cheese you want is necessarily made from raw milk, for example if you wished to make a Roquefort soufflé. :D

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sun Aug 02, 2020 12:20 pm

Thanks for all the contributions ... :thumbsup

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby karadekoolaid » Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:31 am

Late for the party but:
Does anyone know offhand if Swiss cheeses /Gruyere, Apfenzeller, etc) are made with pasteurised or unpasteurised milk?

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby MagicMarmite » Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:54 am

I think generally they are made with pasturised, at least the readily available type in the supermarkets here.

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:35 am

I think the French is made mainly with pasteurised but AOP Swiss Gruyère is made with raw unpasteurised milk


Wiki says neither Swiss Gruyère. nor Appenzeller is pasteurised

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appenzeller_cheese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruyère_cheese

I hadn’t previously bothered looking up cheeses in Wiki, as it lists type of milk and pasteurisation it’s quite handy

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Re: Unpasteurised -v- pasteurised cheese

Postby karadekoolaid » Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:33 am

Wrongly spelt - Appenzeller, not what I wrote!
I shan´t be getting any because my wife is unable to return to Venezuela from Switzerland and has had to go to the UK.
Never mind. I shall dream of the Appenzeller I brought back some years ago following a visit to Scuol in SE Switzerland. Unbelievable!

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