The black one is 8 month maturity. I tasted both, and I think I have preferred the taste of the black. Next time I will try the Reserve. Actually it’s not very clear, on their website, they don’t have the black one, the silver one Classic is about 2.5+ month, a Reserve one is 4+ month.
That plastic girolle is doing the job. But I want this!
Are you? It’s interesting for you for work in the cheese business, at least you have the excuse to taste even more cheese. Sometimes, the really good stuff go to restaurant or long time loyal client directly.
No, I’m not in the cheese business at all. It’s just they assume I don’t know anything about cheese and think they have a good selection. I tell them it’s boring/not special and that they should make an effort to acquire better stuff. Well, along these lines. Mincing my words here.
We don’t get your raw cow brie here in the States, so this is the closest we got. They weren’t kidding when they said this brie tastes earthy and mushroomy. Its more mushroomy than many mushrooms… Made just SW of Paris with thermalized, not pasteurized milk, so its closer to raw.
What’s the policy of bringing cheese through a US border?
It’s marked “au lait cru” on the cheese, so it’s lying. When you put the label “au lait cru” in France, the milk has no treatment whatsoever, not even thermalised. OR it is really raw milk but lied to have used thermalised milk.
Yes, some cheese tasted very “mushroom”, recently an old Cantal I had, it has mushroom taste, but strangely not the younger ones, I tasted at the stand of the same cheese.
Since I only got a slice, I found a picture of the label that looked like the one at the store. I looked again and it seems like there is a version of the label that says ‘au lait entier’.
Have never seen this one. More French cheeses are accessible than Swiss here. France reigns supreme in cheese (also my absolute favourite).
We eat a lot of cheese. I eat twice as much (or more) than the partner. We go through half of the weekend cheeses, the rest lasts til friday when I pick up new ones.
I’m sorry, but that sounds like terribly bad manners to me. The staff in supermarkets are unlikely to be well paid cheese experts, just people doing a job they probably don’t like very much. They don’t choose what goes on the shelf, and have to be nice to difficult customers who have a DPhil in cheese.
To do the same in a cheese shop is no better. To tell the proprietor that his stock is “boring/not special and that they should make an effort to acquire better stuff” is just something you shouldn’t say.
It’s never said in a mean spirited or condescending tone. I am a regular customer and all these shops have at least 1 or 2 cheese I get sometimes. They tell me to try other ones, I say I’ve tried them all as well. I mean to suggest to get new stuff. They know what sells so they keep getting the same thing.
It’s going to be a good cheesy week. Got 3 good ones from 1 of my favourite cheese stalls at the market. Most women like to go shopping for things I like circling the markets’ cheese stalls like a shark looking for non standard/new cheeses. Also, I thanked the cheese seller for his excellent taste, his effort, his patience and for putting up with me. He laughed and said “no, thank YOU!”.
Age is of no importance unless you are a cheese… (!)
I have mentioned the 3 year old version to the cheese seller a couple of times. He says his colleague in another city has aged this Comté for a year in his own cellar but both of them thought it was a lot saltier and dryer (understandably). I think maybe the guy’s own cellar is not like the cheese maker’s cellar. Until I taste the real 3 year old version I can say with certainty that this 2 year old version is the best.
Indeed a good selection, especially the Italian selection, I don’t think I have tried Pecorino Toscano, let me know how it tastes like. While I like a lot Comté and Gruyère, I’m curious about the NL goat cheese. We don’t have a lot of NL cheese here, would like to know more.
I just bought on Friday a mini Mont d’or, we started eating this afternoon, as a late lunch, simply by spreading on baguette and now only 1/4 left. Was really good.
Told my favourite cheese stall owner today how delicious the 3 cheeses last week were… he shrieked with delight. Because he knows I’m not stingy when it comes to good cheese but am stingy with my compliments!
The 3 cheeses all taste different. I can’t decide which I like more. Aged cheese is pretty much the only Dutch cheese I will eat. You asked why Dutch cheese is not common in France, I am only guessing because it can’t really compete there -and in other cheese producing countries. Why do you think French cheese is much sought after in Netherlands (and other countries) then?
Regarding eating cheese, do you, and the French in general, usually eat cheese alone or with bread? From my observations Americans tend to eat cheese with crackers or something similar. We (us and people in this country) most often eat cheese with bread, or without. I’ve asked a few acquaintances and they also eat like us. Nobody eats crackers with cheese. It’s something uniquely American, probably. I don’t know, do Aussies eat crackers with cheese, too?
Bread and cheese together is a must. (Especially the French and me too). In restaurant, they can serve you a small salad (mostly leaves) to accompany the cheese course. Sometimes with some confiture (black cherry, black currant, pear, fig… and more combinations here in French.) or Espelette pepper jelly. At times it’s possible to eat without bread, but some cheese are very intense and salty, it’s difficult to eat alone.
Crackers exist but more as aperitif and usually spread with goat cheese and other stuff like dried tomatoes, prune etc
For dutch cheese, I saw Leerdammer, Mimolette, Gouda and more rarely Maasdam, Vlaskaas in supermarket. Which are your favourites?
Thanks! I meant to say eating different cheeses as part of a cheese board in general. So, bread is usually what we all eat with cheese.
As for my favourites, none of the brands you mentioned. Even Beemster is very industrialised.
Am still enjoying my hard cheeses from last week. Very little left now, but there’s still the Italian stuff which will be used in food.
This one is industrial, as in sold in supermarkets brand. I was going to post it in “silliness” thread. They also run the adverts on TV. There are 2 adverts, this one with her arse and another with the woman putting a big wedge of cheese in her mouth. I think they play with the word “racy” here.
Cheese advert in a free supermarket food magazine.
Recent cheese included a raw milk Camembert from Isigny Sainte-Mère. Actually, it is quite ironic, in 2007 the cooperative ISM joined forces with the biggest milk and cheese producer in the world Lactalis to try to force the change of law AOC and would like to end the traditional practice of using raw milk to make Camembert. The smaller producers and the French Camembert lovers resisted and they gave up after a year of two. After that battle, Lactalis starts buying many smaller independent raw milk cheese maker. Don’t know if they have an agenda behind, but enjoy while we can! For 1 cheese, forgot which one, the difference of producing a paterized milk cheese is 4 weeks, but a raw milk needs 8 weeks.
The Valençay, raw milk goat cheese with charcoal from Touraine. It’s shape a flat pyramid is owned to Napoleon. The cheese was originally a perfect pyramid with a sharp point. During a visit of Napoleon, the pointy cheese reminded him of his irritated visit in Egypt and he used his sword to chop off the top and remain this way ever since.
Out of these 3, I like the Camembert the most, it was at the peak, complex tastes and melting. The Reblochon was alright. This one has a red label. Next time I will try to get a green label. The chèvre was good, nutty and tastes of dried fruits.
Love all the cheese photos, but a question. Do you cut the cheese like that because its more photogenic…?
The best way to cut a round (square, or ring) of cheese isa to cut a triangular wedge rather than cutting across the edge. For wedge of cheese you cut a slice from the entire length of the long side rather than across the tip (less so for hard cheese).
The reason for this is that the cheese matures differently from the outside to the centre with the centre generally being softer and riper. By cutting wedges each slice has the range of maturity. It therefore shares around the best bits.
