Comments

• Boogie Heaven Host

  6:28PM

  I live near Cheddar and my favourite cheese is a mild cheddar with ginger and mango. Delicious.
  
  My second favourite is Somerset Brie.
  
  I've completely deserted Lancashire! Although Lancashire creamy is certainly a treat.
• Baptist Trainfan Shipmate

  6:44PM

  There is a wonderful Caerffili (made in Somerset!) called Gorwydd, it's a toss-up between that and Thelma's Caerffili from Caws Cenarth. Cornish Quartz cheddar is good too.
• A Feminine Force Shipmate

  7:11PM edited 7:14PM

  Since I moved to Spain I was astonished at how well the Spanish do cheese. Queso de cabra is now what I call a REAL cheeseburger topping. Manchego is one of my favorite tapas (boquerones are my absolute fave) and Oviedo Viejo is as sharp, umami and dry as some Parmigianas. A young tierno is cheaper and has the same melt point as a mozzarella but has more bite.
  
  I thought I would miss my Canadian six year old cheddar and St. Agur Quebec bleu but I don't. The cheese landscape here is rich and varied.
  
  AFF
• KarlLB Shipmate

  7:14PM

  Best cheese takes a layer of skin of the inside of your mouth.
• Sandemaniac Shipmate

  7:34PM

  KarlLB wrote: »

  Best cheese takes a layer of skin of the inside of your mouth.

  
  Heretic! The best cheese has a balance between sharpness and flavour that saves your buccal lining from harm. The greatgest I have found was a 14 year old Canadian cheddar on Saffron Walden market, now sadly sold out.
  
  I'm also a fan of the acid, crumbly cheeses like Wensleydale* and Lancashire.
  
  * can anyone not hear that in Wallace's voice?
• Firenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus

  7:40PM

  For Mr F, a day without cheese is a day wasted. I'm less addicted, and don't eat much of it neat, with the exception of Ossau-Iraty, Cheshire, or Gruyère.
  
  Cheese in combo with food is a different matter. Parmesan probably leads the field - fennel baked with that and black pepper is to die for. Blue cheese crumbled over a green salad. Cheddar over baked potato. The occasional fondue.
• March Hare Shipmate

  7:51PM

  For me, Shropshire Blue shades out even blue Stilton. But I share the predilection for crumbly cheeses - Wensleydale (a necessity with Christmas cake), Lancashire, white Stilton.
  
  My absolute detestation is cheese which has been 'mucked about' by having things added - bits of apricot or other fruit, walnut, whatever. Good cheese absolutely does not need tarting up by smart-alecs set on inventing new marketing tricks.
• Baptist Trainfan Shipmate

  8:02PM

  Firenze wrote: »

  For Mr F, a day without cheese is a day wasted. I'm less addicted, and don't eat much of it neat, with the exception of Ossau-Iraty, Cheshire, or Gruyère.

  bYes, Ossau-Iraty is good, so is Comte. There is a restaurant in Suffolk which was for many years owned by a Frenchman. I rarely take cheese in a restaurant as I can do better at home - that though was an exception to the rule as their cheese board was formidable!
  
  
• Stercus Tauri Shipmate

  8:59PM

  I think there is a scientifically provable law that says the worse the cheese smells, the better it tastes. A few years ago a small shop near here kept a supply of Pont l'Évêque from Normandy, which may still be my lifetime favourite. It smells like a toilet badly in need of cleaning, but the taste is heavenly. Consumed along with a Montreal bagel, there is little left to desire.
  
  At the far distant end of the scale, though, would be a freshly made mozzarella, slightly salty and creamy to the taste with no smell at all, and quite delectable if it has caraway seeds in it. It is a lovely cheese, and I have a theory that the closer you get to New York the better it gets.
• ChastMastr Shipmate

  9:16PM edited 9:17PM

  Stercus Tauri wrote: »

  Am in serious need of a frivolous diversion... Might there be some interest in sharing thoughts, experiences, passions, horrors etc on the subject of CHEESE?
  
  I was prompted by finding a piece of Stilton in the back of the fridge. It had been there for some months - a forgotten birthday treat to myself. Its appearance is a disgusting mixture of grey and brown and yellow and green - a clear hazmat case requiring the immediate attendance of persons in white overalls with flashing blue lights on their van. I knew better, of course, cut off a piece and ate it. I immediately felt like a better, happier person. What cheese makes you happier?

  
  Er... is that actually safe? Is that what it's supposed to look like, or do you mean that's what it became between your birthday and now?
• Piglet All Saints Host, Circus Host

  9:47PM

  It probably is more-or-less what it's meant to look like. Even in its prime, Stilton has a greyish-beige rind, and obviously the blue veins.
  
  I confess I'm not a Stilton fan - I find it too pungent - I prefer rather gentler cheese: favourites would be Jarlsberg, Doux de Montagne, not-too-ripe Brie or Camembert, Port Salut and, when I can get it, Grimbister farm cheese from Orkney.
• Stercus Tauri Shipmate

  9:52PM

  I think it's safe... A few years ago our cheese man at the farmers' market had a similar piece that he couldn't sell on account of its increasingly nasty appearance, but I eventually took a chance and never regretted it. Like Shropshire blue, it was a most agreeable complement to an Islay single malt whisky.
• Heavenlyannie Shipmate

  9:57PM

  Mr Heavenly will empathise with the opening post, he got out an old stilton yesterday, cut off the edges and consumed it at what he considers to be its best.
  
  I’m a bit more discerning with my blue cheese and prefer it slightly more fresh, though a good oozing Gorgonzola is to be savoured with a spoon. I like a variety of cheeses, with semi-hard like Wyfe of Bath and hard ones like Rainton Tomme, Carrick and Laganory particular favourites. I’m also partial to the artery-hardening French triple cream ones and delicately flavoured ones like Sussex floral with marigold petals. I like the crumbly ones such as Wensleydale and Lancashire and think Thelma's Caerffili is the best Caerffili.
  In fact, I like pretty much all cheeses except the smelly rind washed ones.
  
  When I was a moderator on a parenting board many moons ago I used to organise the annual cheese swap every autumn, like a Secret Santa with a budget to buy your swapee around 3-4 portions of nice cheeses.