Chocolate English Cheddar

I don't care about chocolate at all. I can't live without it. But I'm a huge fan of English Cheddar, so without hesitation I bough a piece of this cheese. I was very happy to feel again well known flavor of the English Cheddar, not distracted by dark chocolate.  For sure I will buy more.

Idiazábal (Navarra, Basque region)

Idiazábal name comes from the town in the Basque province of Guipúzkoa.  Full of aroma from Lacha sheep is used to produce the cheese. It ripens from to to six months in humid cellars. Idiazábal has waxy yellow rind and beige, compact interior. The holes are hardly visible. The flavor is buttery and slightly piquant.
Some of ripened batches are smoked with hawthorn or cherry wood. It gives the rind a cooper-like color. It also strengthens its flavor and make the paste drier and more aromatic.



I only have a chance to taste the cheese  once a few months ago and it didn't make an impression on me.

Queso Manchego/Iberico (Spain)

Produced in La Mancha in Central Spain, Manchego is made from 100% sheep’s milk. Due to climate conditions ( raw, cold winters and dry summers) milk is  exceptionally fatty and aromatic.

It is easily recognized by the zigzag pattern etched into its rind and moist interior with tiny holes.

Manchego can be ripened from two to six months. Young (fresco) has fresh and elegant flavor, older (curado) is more salty, piquant and aromatic. The oldest (anjeo) ripens up to two years and becomes extra hard.

Iberico is a Manchego-style cheese made from a blend of cow (50%), goat (30%) and sheep’s milk (10%). Interesting, Iberico cheese is produced only in the province of Valladolid in central Spain. 

The interior paste has a light yellow/ white to slight beige color, mild  aroma and interesting flavor.

Both are great as table cheeses; they also melt well and delicious in omelets or salads (Snow Pea Salad with Manchego).
Recipes:
Broccoli Rabe with Chestnuts and Iberico

1,000 Day / Old Amsterdam Gouda ( Netherlands)

 Gouda has very good keeping qualities, and some are aged for even for 4 years. It's the Netherlands' specialty and represents over 60% of the entire Dutch cheese production. Gouda comes from  the small town situated between Rotterdam and Utrecht and was exported as far back as 13th century. 

Below, three aged Gouda  cheeses I have tasted so far.

Tagen Dagan Gouda must be the oldest cheese I have ever eaten. I'm not a  connoisseur of aged cheeses and I taste them once or twice a year. It's hard and but not so dry. It is coated in  orange wax. Caramel color , a uniquely crystalline texture and nutty smell make the cheese very tempting. The taste is sharp and intensive.  At the beginning, I thought that the color comes from natural process of aging. Then I noticed annatto at the list of ingredients.  When cheese is melted you can feel how salty and fat it is. I don't like it at all.

Recipe for warm sandwiches with mushrooms and cheese.

On or two years ago  I had tasted Old Amsterdam Gouda and it is said " to be ripened to perfection" and regularly checked for flavor. It's matured for only 18 months and its paste is pale yellow and coated with black wax.

Sheep's Milk  Aged Gouda has some caramel flavor, which I found very interesting.

Gruyère de Comté (Franche-Comté/Jura)

 Gruyère de Comté - king of the mountain cheeses and one of the most famous French dairy products . It also the largest French cheese.




  Gruyère de Comté is true artisan, hand-made cheese. The production of Comté remains based on traditional methods created eight centuries ago. It means that it can be made only from raw milk which comes from Montbéliarde and Pie-Rouge and transported no more than 25 km to "fruitières" (dairies).
 The cheese is cylindrical  with a diameter of 50-75 cm. Comté can weight 55 kg.To produce the one wheel about  500 ml of milk is needed (an average daily milking of 30 cows). The size of the wheels enabled storing the cheese during the hard and long winters in Jura.

It has a tight-knit texture and satiny body which is the result of the (at least) 4-month maturation. But the best Comté cheeses are left to mature for over a year.
And it has natural grainy  golden -brown rind which I like the most in the cheese. The interior is smooth, dense; has creamy color and nutty flavor in winter but  and fruity taste and dark-yellow color in summer.