Cahill's Vintage Irish Cheddar with Porter

It's impossible to overlook the cheese and don't buy it. When I first saw it  reminded me "Salceson" - a type of head cheese (which has nothing in common with dairy products) made in Poland.
It has bitter flavor, which is lees strong when cheese is melted. I don't drink beer but I really enjoy the taste of the cheddar. Unique and irresistible.

Especially for Cahill's Vintage Irish Cheddar with Porter I baked : sourdough rye with double chocolate stout.

Goat's Milk Cheddar/ La Buchette (Canada)

Two Canadian cheeses that have drown my attention. 
 I haven't notice any characteristic flavor of Goat's milk cheddar and I see no reason to eat it anymore. There are much better cheddar and more delicious goat cheeses to choose.
 I  used to buy it when I needed some cheese to use it in a casserole, because it grates and melts easily. I also liked it pale color.  Now I prefer chèvre, which flavor is more detectable.
Tuna Savoury with Goat's Milk Cheddar recipe.


 La Buchette not only has appealing look (after removing these ugly yellow sticks) but also fantastic flavor.

The cheese is a copy of  Bucheron - French goat milk's cheese derived from Loire Valley.  It is like a camembert cheese with delicate rind and chèvre in the center. Perfect pair - isn't it?

I WANT IT ALL! I WANT IT NOW!

Red Dragon Cheddar with Wholegrain Mustard & Welsh Brown Ale (Somerdale)

Cheddar, wholegrain mustard seeds and Welsh brown ale constitute Y Fenni cheese. Red waxed bears
the name of the symbol taken from the Welsh flag. Another Y Fenni cheese have a yellow wax but similarly to Red Dragon it is labeled with a medieval artwork.



This Cheddar Cheese has more appealing name and look than flavor.
When I first tasted it, I was really disappointed that the cheese is not as hot as I would expected. There is plenty of mustard seeds in it, but they are soft and mild. Melting helps to release its tangy flavor.
The cheese is as the Cheddar should be: buttery and creamy.



I believe that the cheddar is worth giving it a try. I appreciate it original farmhouse character and attractive, deliberated design.





It also pairs very well with chicken or turkey breast.



Recipes
Omelet with Red Dragon Cheddar and Cubanelle Pepper
Veal stuffed with Red Dragon

Oak Smoked English Cheddar

I really hate artificially smoked cheese. But, thanks God, there are the people who can smoke traditionally. The cheese comes the Quicke's family in Devon in the United Kingdom.
Their 12-15-month mature well-flavored cheddar has been traditionally smoked for 3-4 hours over oak chips from the farm's woodland. No liquids are used to smoke and there are no artificial flavorings.  It gives the cheese a strong flavor of smoking and a slightly dry texture.

Thanks to this cheese I started discovering and enjoying cheddar cheese. I had a few unpleasant experiences with cheddar made in the USA and I hadn't expected that I would fall in love with the cheese.

Cheddar info

Ossau-Iraty (Aquitaine, Pyrenées Atlantiques)

I haven't eaten the cheese for a long time (update: It came back at the and end of 2011) but it's hard to forget its firm, orange-yellow to gray rind. A rind is my favorite part of the most cheeses. It often has more flavor than a paste. Alike a  bread crust which I found tastier than a crumb.
The shepherds from the French  Pyrénées has been making cheese for centuries. Ossau Iraty is made with the milk of the Manech and Basco-Bearnaise ewes. It is dried and regularly rubbed for 3 months and further   aged in the Artisanal Premium Cheese caves until its paste turns a luscious ivory. The cheese is sweet and buttery and the closer to its  rind  the more it resembles toasted hazelnuts.

Roquefort(Midi- Pyrenées, Averyon)

According to the legend, Roquefort came being in the caves where a shepherd  enchented by a beautiful girl left his lunch: milk and bread. The shepherd was looking for the girl for a few days without success. To make the matter worse, he found his meal covered in mold. He was to hungry to resist eating his rotten lunch,  and to his suprise, he found it delicious.

Legendary shepard's meal was declared by Charlemagne his favorite cheese; then in 1411 Charles IV signed a charter giving the inhibitants of the southern French village of Roquefort in Aveyron: "  the privilege to mature the cheeses as it has always been done in the caves of the aforementioned village".

 Roquefort is made from raw milk of Lacaune sheep - the only breed which can survive in severe mountain climate. The cheese is matured only in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, where it develops its piquant, salty, strong flavor and intensive aroma. Mature Roquefort is ivory in color, litlle crumbly and full of mold traces.

Goat's Milk Gouda Cheese (Holland)

Goat's Milk Gouda (matured for 6 months) is my favorite all the time. I believe it has a lot of fans. It is always in stock at "Trader Joe's" where I buy  cheese.
 I like it much more than any Gouda made from cow's milk. It has satiny, light texture, tangy flavor and bright white color. Very pleasant taste, not tart at all.  In the photo below you can also see the cheese with added potatoes and herbs. Nice variation but I haven't seen it for a year or more in the store.







I also enjoy Aged Goat's Milk Gouda, which has been aged for 16 months. Flavor is more savoury and characteristic, but still not so strong like aged cow's milk Gouda.

Dutch Gouda/Spring Gouda

I enjoy a young Gouda cheese much more than  those aged. It's firm, easy to cut, has silky and smooth consistency and has only a few small holes. Taste is mild and creamy, not sophisticated. It is sometimes good to eat a simple sandwich with a slice of Gouda topped with tomato for breakfast.
Double Cream Gouda has buttery flavor but  it's rubbery and not easy to slice.

Meadowkaas Spring Gouda – a gouda that’s only available in springtime. It’s cheese’s version of Beaujolais Nouveau. I didn’t expect much from it but the cheese is delicious: mild, creamy, nutty, and salty. It has nice small but visible holes, has natural yellow color and smells like fresh butter. The best Gouda I have ever eaten. If only spring could last at least for 6 months.

S.A.F.R Port Salut ( Pays de la Loire/Mayenne)

S.A.F.R Port Salut decends from the one of France oldest Trappist cheeses . It used to be produced as Port-du -Salut by the Trappist Abbey of Notre-Dame de Port -du -Salut (Harbor of Healing) and in 1938 the monks were granted the exclusive rights to produces the cheese. The cheese was presented in Paris in 1873 and soon gained popularity. Today,  Port Salut is produced by the dairy cooperative of Mayenne, which bought the license from the monks, who were unable to keep up with demand for the cheese.

As you see in the photos above  Port Salut has natural orange rind. The interior  is smooth, ivory colored and has mild and acidic flavor. I like eating  Port Salut warmed and softened on a slice of rye bread. I used to consider the cheese as bland and not aromatic, but now I appreciate it much more.

Morbier (Franche-Comté/Doobs)

If you don’t mind  having some ash* in your cheese you should try Morbier ( meaning "small market-town")

Traditionally, Morbier was made from the remaining of the curds from making  Gruyère de Comté in the morning. The leftovers was pressed into a mold and covered with some ash to prevent a rind from forming and protect from insects. In the evening they filled the molds with fresh portion of curds. This way smart farmers could enjoy  (after ripening for 3-4 months) their own cheese.
Today Morbier is almost as famous as  Comté.

I fell in love with Morbier many years ago and it is still  one of my favorites. It has mild and delicate flavor, which can only be discovered after heating and melting the cheese. The rind is orange with some gray spots and covers a quite large round cheese which has a diameter of 25-40 cm.


*today the gray layer, horizontal stripe halfway up Morbier is made from vegetable ash.

White Stilton (Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire)

White Stilton is my favorite when I'm craving for something sweet. Rarely I eat chocolate or cakes, but cheese is my staple food (next to my own sourdough bread). There is so many cheeses  that one human life is not enough to try them all. 

White Stilton is young  cousin of Blue Stilton, which hasn't been enhanced with blue-mold starter cultures. It has mild taste which is flavored with dried fruits: blueberries, lemon peel, apple and pear (haven't tasted them yet), mango & ginger (very sweet), apricots (bland) and cranberries (delicious!)

• with mango and ginger : interesting but too sweet for my taste buds.

• with dried apricots: the fruit are for me too though and don't increase the flavor of the cheese

• with cranberries: my favorite cheese for fall; cheese and cranberries are like a harmonious marriage

Blue Stilton ( Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire)

When I tasted  Blue Silton for the first time, I was positively surprised by the mellow flavor and creamy and slightly crumbly texture with fine blue veining . Eating Blue Stilton is like enjoying an exquisite dark chocolate.They yellowish  rind around the cheese is marked with white patches  and becomes brown, coarse and crusty with age. Young Stilton has mild flavor but mature has strong aftertaste (and makes me thirsty).

Stilton is known as the King of English Cheese and it rightfully wears the dairy crown. It is the only British cheese graced with its own certification trademark.
Stilton is named after a village in Cambridgeshire where the cheese used to be made and sold to travelers at an in inn there. It was invented by a woman:  Mrs Frances Pawlett of Wymondham, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. She was  a supreme cheese-maker and Stilton ( Britain's first blue cheese) constitutes a proof of her skills. I'm very happy to find out about  that woman. I had always connected the art of cheese making with men.

Spinach and Blue Stilton Tart recipe