The Cheese Board

[cloughie]

Of course there are Brie Encounters (courtesy of Wallace and Gromit!).

We must listen to some Camembert Humperdinck this evening.

But not the dreadful guy who croons out of toon!

[cloughie]

When i lived in france i always noticed a much larger choice of cheese in the supermarket.

There was also one here before Brexit!

[Old Grumpy]

Since early childhood I have adored Norwegian Gjetost, sometimes known as Brown Cheese in Norway. It is made from the whey of goats’ and cows’ milk. Delicious sliced thinly with a cheese slicer, I love it on toast at any time of day. It has a distinctive sweet, caramel-like flavour, unlike any other cheese. Funnily enough, Mrs K grew up in Norway and speaks Norsk but she cannot abide the taste of my beloved Gjetost.

I remember it well...

...I went to Hardanger in 1976 before university on a scheme where you spent 3 months working on a fruit farm. Board and lodging provided and 100 Krone* weekly pocket money IIRC.

Brunost or Gouda in a big block sliced with an implement then new to me - an ostehøvel. I still have the one I acquired during my stay as I was so impressed with the concept.

*Then about £10

[oddoneout]

Since early childhood I have adored Norwegian Gjetost, sometimes known as Brown Cheese in Norway. It is made from the whey of goats’ and cows’ milk. Delicious sliced thinly with a cheese slicer, I love it on toast at any time of day. It has a distinctive sweet, caramel-like flavour, unlike any other cheese. Funnily enough, Mrs K grew up in Norway and speaks Norsk but she cannot abide the taste of my beloved Gjetost.

I remember that one. When my children were young they were dairy intolerant(still are to a certain extent) so things like cheese were difficult. There was a cheeseshop cum deli in town though which stocked this cheese in a 100% goat milk version. It was christened chocolate cheese by the children and much enjoyed, but its cost meant small portions only. Another cheese they had was pecorino, used like parmesan, grated to top grilled or baked dishes. The difficulty was that it had a very strong "characteristic" smell when so heated which wasn't the nicest when it got round the house. Fortunately it tasted fine.
On a happy note, although the cheeseshop shut its doors many many years ago, the business itself continues as market stalls, now run by the next generation, and comes to town once a week. It specialises in locally made cheese, and also offers less usual continental types.

[oddoneout]

I remember it well...

...I went to Hardanger in 1976 before university on a scheme where you spent 3 months working on a fruit farm. Board and lodging provided and 100 Krone* weekly pocket money IIRC.

Brunost or Gouda in a big block sliced with an implement then new to me - an ostehøvel. I still have the one I acquired during my stay as I was so impressed with the concept.

*Then about £10

I have a dutch one, but very rarely use it now with family having moved on. I can get sliced gouda and maasdam from Aldi or Lidl, and it isn't the easiest thing to wield when arthritis is making hands sore. It doesn't work with British hard cheeses(too crumbly) but I keep it for the rare occasions when I can get komijnekaas from the cheese stall.

[Pulcinella]

I'm sadly not a fan of Parmesan (horrid experience in a staff canteen ages ago!) but, being a Lancashire lad, I've found that this from Aldi behaves very similarly in dishes I use it for.

https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-specially-selected-handmade-mature-farmhouse-tasty-lancashire-200g/4088600515151

I can cope with parmesan shavings; it's the texture and smell of the grated stuff as it melts as a topping or is used in sauces that I can't stand. Those disgusting Kraft tubes! Aargh!

[french frank]

I'm sadly not a fan of Parmesan (horrid experience in a staff canteen ages ago!)

I sympathise (what else can one do faced with other people's tastes?). I served up some freshly cut Parmesan on a cheese board and the expected smile if delight was in fact met with a shaking of the head and a curt, 'No'. It might need some getting used to but the very intense, nutty taste is quite a favourite with me. When the lump of cheese loses its freshness, I do grate it but it's nothing special then.

[oddoneout]

I sympathise (what else can one do faced with other people's tastes?). I served up some freshly cut Parmesan on a cheese board and the expected smile if delight was in fact met with a shaking of the head and a curt, 'No'. It might need some getting used to but the very intense, nutty taste is quite a favourite with me. When the lump of cheese loses its freshness, I do grate it but it's nothing special then.

When I had a proper oven and people to eat them I would sometimes do the parmesan crisps thing - little portions of grated cheese on a baking sheet melted and just beginning to brown round the edge. When cold they made a good crispy nibble to go with an aperitif.

[french frank]

When I had a proper oven and people to eat them I would sometimes do the parmesan crisps thing - little portions of grated cheese on a baking sheet melted and just beginning to brown round the edge. When cold they made a good crispy nibble to go with an aperitif.

Sounds good.

Not exactly What I'm cooking/What I've just cooked but, following the comments about Parmesan, what I had for a light lunch today. My box of cheeses, alluded to elsewhere, included a wedge of pecorino - not a cheese I've ever bought, but similarly used for grating. I looked up what might go with fresh pecorino: suggestions, pear, walnuts, dried fruit. So, on the basis of 'what I had', lunch was a piece of pecorino, a pear quartered and cored, a handful of raw almonds and a handful of dried mixed fruit. Having no decent bread, I cut two slices of my indifferent wholemeal loaf and fried them in 'butter' till they were brown and crisp. Not bad with a glass of rosso.

Verdict on pecorino: slightly sharper and lighter than a Parmigiano Reggiano, a sort of 'mid-orangeish brown' taste to Parmesan's darker mid-reddish brown. Very tasty.

[oddoneout]

Sounds good.

Not exactly What I'm cooking/What I've just cooked but, following the comments about Parmesan, what I had for a light lunch today. My box of cheeses, alluded to elsewhere, included a wedge of pecorino - not a cheese I've ever bought, but similarly used for grating. I looked up what might go with fresh pecorino: suggestions, pear, walnuts, dried fruit. So, on the basis of 'what I had', lunch was a piece of pecorino, a pear quartered and cored, a handful of raw almonds and a handful of dried mixed fruit. Having no decent bread, I cut two slices of my indifferent wholemeal loaf and fried them in 'butter' till they were brown and crisp. Not bad with a glass of rosso.

Verdict on pecorino: slightly sharper and lighter than a Parmigiano Reggiano, a sort of 'mid-orangeish brown' taste to Parmesan's darker mid-reddish brown. Very tasty.

Pear and walnuts seem to be go-to partners for many cheeses.

[vinteuil]

pecorino

... not forgetting pecorino stagionato - and especially pecorino di fossa

https://igourmet.com/blogs/gourmet-food-guide/pecorino-gourmet-guide

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230124-why-italian-cheesemakers-buried-their-pecorino

[vinteuil]

lunch was a piece of pecorino, a pear

... business lunches in France - we were trained to leave the serious business until the gap between cheese and pudding - entre la poire et le fromage .

I see that up until the 17th century the French retained the 'English' manner of having the pudding before the cheese -

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/entre_la_poire_et_le_fromage#:~:text=Locution%20ad verbiale,-adverbe&text=(Familier)%20Sur%20la%20fin%20du,fait %20qu'on%20parle%20librement.&text=(Hors%20de%20co ntexte)%2C%20(,la%20poire%20et%20le%20fromage

.

https://www.tentationfromage.fr/pages/blog-fromage-questions-reponses-entre-poire-et-fromage

[Pulcinella]

Sounds good.

Not exactly What I'm cooking/What I've just cooked but, following the comments about Parmesan, what I had for a light lunch today. My box of cheeses, alluded to elsewhere, included a wedge of pecorino - not a cheese I've ever bought, but similarly used for grating. I looked up what might go with fresh pecorino: suggestions, pear, walnuts, dried fruit. So, on the basis of 'what I had', lunch was a piece of pecorino, a pear quartered and cored, a handful of raw almonds and a handful of dried mixed fruit. Having no decent bread, I cut two slices of my indifferent wholemeal loaf and fried them in 'butter' till they were brown and crisp. Not bad with a glass of rosso.

Verdict on pecorino: slightly sharper and lighter than a Parmigiano Reggiano, a sort of 'mid-orangeish brown' taste to Parmesan's darker mid-reddish brown. Very tasty.

And being from sheep is apparently OK for mothers breast-feeding babies with lactose intolerance, I think.

[french frank]

... not forgetting pecorino stagionato - and especially pecorino di fossa

This was pecorino romano - according to wiki one of the oldest Italian cheeses, a fave of the Roman legionaries, now largely made in Sardinia.

Yr other links will be avidly consumed. Esp the idea of cheese after pudding. I always thought the order had something to do with what was drunk during the course of the meal.

[oddoneout]

That BBC article was very interesting - another bit of R3 community serendipity. Using caves for maturing and storing cheese isn't unusual, but seems to be associated with certain cheeses rather than being universal.
The reference to the caves under the restaurant being originally used by the Romans for storing pozzolano(volcanic ash, rather than sand as the article says) links to an article I read recently in connection with the topical RAAC concerns, where various investigations have considered why Roman concrete is so longlasting. One answer apparently is the inclusion of said volcanic material which makes the concrete very resistant to salt water.