CHEESE 2026
Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
in Heaven
Am in serious need of a frivolous diversion... Might there be some interest in sharing thoughts, experiences, passions, horrors etc on the subject of CHEESE?
I was prompted by finding a piece of Stilton in the back of the fridge. It had been there for some months - a forgotten birthday treat to myself. Its appearance is a disgusting mixture of grey and brown and yellow and green - a clear hazmat case requiring the immediate attendance of persons in white overalls with flashing blue lights on their van. I knew better, of course, cut off a piece and ate it. I immediately felt like a better, happier person. What cheese makes you happier?
I was prompted by finding a piece of Stilton in the back of the fridge. It had been there for some months - a forgotten birthday treat to myself. Its appearance is a disgusting mixture of grey and brown and yellow and green - a clear hazmat case requiring the immediate attendance of persons in white overalls with flashing blue lights on their van. I knew better, of course, cut off a piece and ate it. I immediately felt like a better, happier person. What cheese makes you happier?
Comments
My second favourite is Somerset Brie.
I've completely deserted Lancashire! Although Lancashire creamy is certainly a treat.
I thought I would miss my Canadian six year old cheddar and St. Agur Quebec bleu but I don't. The cheese landscape here is rich and varied.
AFF
Heretic! The best cheese has a balance between sharpness and flavour that saves your buccal lining from harm. The greatgest I have found was a 14 year old Canadian cheddar on Saffron Walden market, now sadly sold out.
I'm also a fan of the acid, crumbly cheeses like Wensleydale* and Lancashire.
* can anyone not hear that in Wallace's voice?
Cheese in combo with food is a different matter. Parmesan probably leads the field - fennel baked with that and black pepper is to die for. Blue cheese crumbled over a green salad. Cheddar over baked potato. The occasional fondue.
My absolute detestation is cheese which has been 'mucked about' by having things added - bits of apricot or other fruit, walnut, whatever. Good cheese absolutely does not need tarting up by smart-alecs set on inventing new marketing tricks.
At the far distant end of the scale, though, would be a freshly made mozzarella, slightly salty and creamy to the taste with no smell at all, and quite delectable if it has caraway seeds in it. It is a lovely cheese, and I have a theory that the closer you get to New York the better it gets.
Er... is that actually safe? Is that what it's supposed to look like, or do you mean that's what it became between your birthday and now?
I confess I'm not a Stilton fan - I find it too pungent - I prefer rather gentler cheese: favourites would be Jarlsberg, Doux de Montagne, not-too-ripe Brie or Camembert, Port Salut and, when I can get it, Grimbister farm cheese from Orkney.
I’m a bit more discerning with my blue cheese and prefer it slightly more fresh, though a good oozing Gorgonzola is to be savoured with a spoon. I like a variety of cheeses, with semi-hard like Wyfe of Bath and hard ones like Rainton Tomme, Carrick and Laganory particular favourites. I’m also partial to the artery-hardening French triple cream ones and delicately flavoured ones like Sussex floral with marigold petals. I like the crumbly ones such as Wensleydale and Lancashire and think Thelma's Caerffili is the best Caerffili.
In fact, I like pretty much all cheeses except the smelly rind washed ones.
When I was a moderator on a parenting board many moons ago I used to organise the annual cheese swap every autumn, like a Secret Santa with a budget to buy your swapee around 3-4 portions of nice cheeses.
Because of that my favourite cheeses tend to come from the limited selection found in the supermarkets of a nearby town.
My present favourites are Red Leicester, particularly Red Fox, Shropshire Blue, and Manchego. There is always mature cheddar in the house for cheese & pickle sandwiches, or piling on a jacket potato, or just for chomping on a chunk.
Living in Sussex, I couldn't resist the Waitrose Christmas advert with Keira Knightly, so ordered a triple pack of Sussex Charmer from the producer as Christmas presents for our 2 sons - and myself! Unlike most stuff I buy online, it was worth getting, and we all enjoyed it.
Mr RoS and I are currently working our way through a log of Brânză de Burduf, passed on to us by someone who had been given a generous food parcel as a gift by a visitor from Romania. Unfortunately it was already a day or two past its BB date when we got it, so we are eating it rather quickly. It's a good job it's tasty.
Cheese kicks chocolate's wimpy arse and sends it right through the window. No comparison. I could go a thousand years without chocolate before a week without cheese.
Pungency is the appeal. One of my major struggles in weight loss is that I've yet to find anything that has the flavour kick that cheese does. Sandwiches made with anything else just taste of disappointment.
Brie and Camembert are pointless until they're virtually liquid.
Hmm... Two of my favourites I've never thought of putting together. That's an experiment I need to make.
Not sure whether I am horrified at the waste (all that cheese incinerated!) or glad I don't have to eat any. Although I do like goat's cheese...
I do like gruyère neat, but only tend to buy it to make gougère, which I mastered years ago and occasionally make as my show-off veggie recipe.
I was waiting for someone to mention this particular delicacy. So funny it was a fellow Canuck.
My first encounter with Pont L'Eveque was at a cafe in Deauville when I was 23. The waiter extolled it as the best cheese in the world. My unsophisticated palate revolted so strongly against it, I believe it is the only time in my life I have ever spit something into a napkin for being unable to get it past my gag reflex.
I described it as tasting like the floor of a barn. People ask me if I've ever tasted the floor of a barn, but I grew up on a cattle farm and if you've ever moved two tons of cow manure with a three tined pitchfork, you'll know what I mean.
Since then my palate has matured and I heartily agree with the pairing with a peaty Islay single malt.
AFF
It is “delicate and complex.” I quite enjoyed it, though not its outer coating, which I removed.
https://lynherdairies.co.uk/shop/cornish-yarg-nettle-wrapped-cheese/
Ah... Filed for future reference.
I haven't tried that, but many moons ago in the Isle of Man, we had a lovely cheese called Hereford Hop (wrapped in - guess what - hop leaves), which had a delicious nutty flavour.
While I live in the land of Comté, Camembert and all the rest, I was quite excited to find real English Cheddar in Lidl this week for an affordable price.
Yes. Definitely.
I live in an unrefined bit of SoCal suburbia and it's a similar sad situation. If I ever make it to the UK I'm going try all these intriguing cheeses along with Real Ale. My mom never really cared for beer until she discovered decent pub brews on her sole trip to England.
This looks like a strong case for Britain and France collaborating on an emergency foreign aid program.
Some of our own products are good. For the soft cheeses I reckon the Best Before date is really a Best After date.
My freezer has a stash of expired camembert I got reduced from our local shop for this very reason.
There was a time in the UK when 'proper' cheese seemed to be vanishing, and all that was available was 'cheddar' imported from the southern hemisphere and processed cheese such as Kraft Dairylea, which stretched the definition more than a bit. Fortunately, as with beer (anyone remember the 'Party 7' nadir?), enough people caught on just in time to revive interest in the real thing and save the old cheese-makers and inspire new ones.
For me, the epiphany came when I first encountered the cheese stall at Cambridge market. At the same time, I was discovering Adnam's, Greene King and Young's ('Winter Warmer!')
It's hard to credit now what a drought of good artisan food there was in the UK in the late sixties and seventies.
Unlike the beer, however, there's massive price difference. Good cheese I can have only occasionally; the really artisanal stuff I can't justify the price of at all.
It's Lent, so it'll be a while before I'm back on Cheshire, Lancashire and Nantwich Blue.
I was pleased to find jolly decent British and Continental European cheeses on sale in Australia this Christmas. @LatchKeyKid is right.
I once visited a corner of Burgundy that boasted 200 different types of cheese.
I can't name names and didn't try all of them of course but it was cheese paradise.
@Baptist Trainfan, Monmouth and The Marches were anything but gastronomic havens when I was growing up in South Wales but I'll definitely seek out some of your recommendations when I'm down there next.
"Ooooh! Wensleyda.... WHY THE FECK ARE THERE CRANBERRIES IN HERE?!?"
I can go with chives in Double Gloucester though.
Apricots in White Stilton should be a capital offence.
@KarlLB - ah, an Israelite indeed ...
Seconded.
Any wisdom out there on how to store Limburger? It seems to me that this one isn't quite ready, but am not sure of the right temperature for it. A bit of googlery advises to refrigerate it, but I think the fridge is too cold for it to mature and soften.
Or there might be a specialty retailer near you - there's a searchable map of California cheese makers and purveyors here:
https://www.cheesetrail.org. If you're in the San Diego area, there's a teeny little chain called Venissimo that's excellent. At least the one in Del Mar is.
We are lucky here - there's a specialty cheese shop in town a few miles away, plus an Italian deli right in our neighborhood with a few high quality cheeses.