The Cheese Board

[french frank]

We grow the Jerusalem type, or rather they grow in a swathe , planted by the previous owner, who recommended Artichoke soup.

I believe I have related here the time I went to stay with friends for a weekend and they served artichoke soup for supper ... I was in acute pain afterwards.

[Barbirollians]

The issue is inulin - in Jerusalem artichokes . It is an indigestible sugar . It does not affect some people at all - others suffer horrible wind and indigestion.

It is much better to cut it 50/50 with potatoes IMO and benefits from a touch of curry powder and plenty of finely chopped flat leaf parsley . Non vegetarians may also find a few chopped rashers of bacon cooked with an onion in butter when starting to make the soup will please.

[Roger Webb]

The issue is inulin - in Jerusalem artichokes . It is an indigestible sugar . It does not affect some people at all - others suffer horrible wind and indigestion.

It is much better to cut it 50/50 with potatoes IMO and benefits from a touch of curry powder and plenty of finely chopped flat leaf parsley . Non vegetarians may also find a few chopped rashers of bacon cooked with an onion in butter when starting to make the soup will please.

Does my boiling them and then pickling (in cider vinegar) destroy the deleterious effect of the 'inulin' in the artichoke then? We have never suffered any ill effects from consuming them.

[oddoneout]

The issue is inulin - in Jerusalem artichokes . It is an indigestible sugar . It does not affect some people at all - others suffer horrible wind and indigestion.

It is much better to cut it 50/50 with potatoes IMO and benefits from a touch of curry powder and plenty of finely chopped flat leaf parsley . Non vegetarians may also find a few chopped rashers of bacon cooked with an onion in butter when starting to make the soup will please.

I read somewhere that during the war there was a point when Jerusalem artichokes were seriously considered as an alternative to potatoes as a source of starch/calories, as they are hardy and easy to grow. Fortunately someone realised that inulin is not a substitute for potato starch, and reliance on it would severely compromise calorie intake - quite apart from the unpleasant side effects.
They are useful pigfeed however, and one way to clear unwanted tubers from the ground is to allow pigs to rootle over it. I never had a problem with them taking over on my allotment, in fact I had difficulty keeping them going for more than a couple of years at a time.

[french frank]

We have never suffered any ill effects from consuming them.

Nor did mine hosts, though their visitor mysteriously disappeared for the rest of the evening.

[vinteuil]

We have never suffered any ill effects from consuming them.

I think I'm lucky too - artichoke soup one of my absolute favourites. I also like jerusalem artichokes cut in to bite-size pieces, tossed in hot oil and baked for 20 minutes until soft on the inside and a bit crunchy on the outside

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[Roger Webb]

I think I'm lucky too - artichoke soup one of my absolute favourites. I also like jerusalem artichokes cut in to bite-size pieces, tossed in hot oil and baked for 20 minutes until soft on the inside and a bit crunchy on the outside

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Ah yes, I'll try the latter next time we harvest...ours are of a quite diminutive size, which is why we pickle them whole and eat them with cheese.

[french frank]

As I mostly (as in always) eat alone at home, I may cautiously try vinteuil's idea first. I love trying out new things to eat with cheese. The 'Saint-Nectaire?' has been out of the fridge since breakfast time. I will sniff for pong before eating. Just red cabbage soup and cheese for lunch today .

I wish I could remember the difference between a soupe and a potage. I keep looking it up but the answer keeps escaping me. [Just looked again. Mine is a soupe - lots of bits of légumes in it.]

[french frank]

Pretty sure the unknown cheese is Tomme de Savoie. There are very small holes in it and a tiny scrap of dark rind.

https://www.tasteatlas.com/tomme-de-savoie

Not sure I can tell semi-soft from semi-hard, but I'd have said soft whereas Saint-Nectaire seems to be classed as semi-hard:

https://www.tasteatlas.com/saint-nectaire

[vinteuil]

... and confirmation, after eating, that it was a morbier?

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[Pulcinella]

Silly question, perhaps, but unless it's already closed down why not ask the bistrot?
Or would that spoil the fun?

[oddoneout]

The issue is inulin - in Jerusalem artichokes . It is an indigestible sugar . It does not affect some people at all - others suffer horrible wind and indigestion.

I have a dodgy gut anyway so wasn't surprised when the artichokes didn't suit, but I really didn't like the taste either so no problem. I'll stick with the globe sort.
In the course of looking up inulin(checking I had remembered correctly what it was) I found out that chicory root contains it as well, which might explain why a rather nice herbal tea I tried recently did not agree with me - the ingredients included chicory root. What I have yet to establish is whether chicons might also be a problem as I love them and can eat quite a quantity at a time.

[french frank]

Silly question, perhaps, but unless it's already closed down why not ask the bistrot?
Or would that spoil the fun?

I'm there before you! I shall enquire next week. The gang will be there next week, or some of it (le monsignor and his wife will be there, but la baronne prefers to cook chez elle in the evening) - we used to meet for (now discontinued) lunch). I never really did goat's cheese, but the Sainte-Maure de Touraine (if such it was) was very good indeed.

As to the Morbier: it was cut last Tuesday and has spent most of the time since in the fridge, so the taste may have deteriorated. I go solely by the visual evidence:

1) Nothing but a French cheese would have been countenanced
2) what other French cheese could it have been?

There was also the thin, light-coloured hard cheese: It was a very flat (barely 15mm thick) cheese. As per m. vinteuil's suggestion, probably also a goat's cheese.

I wondered whether to have dressed olives with, but decided in favour of watercress and a stick of c*l*r*y (to spare Mr A's sensibilities). I shall finish with home made rice pudding later on this evening - no rush!

[HighlandDougie]

Pretty sure the unknown cheese is Tomme de Savoie. There are very small holes in it and a tiny scrap of dark rind.

https://www.tasteatlas.com/tomme-de-savoie

Not sure I can tell semi-soft from semi-hard, but I'd have said soft whereas Saint-Nectaire seems to be classed as semi-hard:
https://www.tasteatlas.com/saint-nectaire

The numerous vacheries in the arrière-pays niçois all make cheese which is, simply, known as ‘Tome’ or ‘Tomme’ - and which is a dead-ringer for FF’s spongy number. So whether it’s “de Savoie” or the alfresco stuff made after heating fresh and wholly unpasteurised milk in a copper over a wood fire up the road at Authion, I’m sure it’s a simple tomme/tome. The pale cheese looks like pecorino so may be a hard sheep milk number. And definitely ‘Fourme d’Ambert’.

[french frank]

The pale cheese looks like pecorino so may be a hard sheep milk number.

It is (was) exactly the colour and texture of a pecorino, though all the bistrot cheeses, cured meats, wines and spirits are French so unlikely to have been pecorino. I saw some Ossau-Iraty in Tesco and dismissed it as some sort of industrial cheese I'd never heard of but I discover this is a gee-nu-yne French Basque AOP cheese. So next time I'm in Téco ...

Now time to have my rice pudding. I shall try adding some dried apricots, gently stewed in a white wine syrup. Btw what do schools do to rice pudding to make a delectable king of puddings so universally hated for life?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?