The Morbier I have been tucking into (since I bought some on Friday) is delicious; thank you, @gigatoaster for reminding me of just precisely how good this cheese can be when it is in season and ripe and just perfect.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The Cheese thread.......
- Thread starter rhett7660
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Livarot cheese (that is, maturing - i.e softening - Livarot cheese) with shallots on rye bread......yum. Seriously yum.
In the market - at two different stalls selling cheese (and in the cheesemonger's), I purchased a few cheeses today:
They included: Gorgonzola Cremosa, Roquefort, Zamora (with rosemary), Maasdammer, goat's Brie, and Morbier.
They included: Gorgonzola Cremosa, Roquefort, Zamora (with rosemary), Maasdammer, goat's Brie, and Morbier.
We have just hit the time of year when I can actually get interested in cottage cheese. I find it refreshing on the side of a simple salad of some halved grape tomatoes and iceberg lettuce (dressed with a little oil and vinegar) at lunchtime during heatwaves in July or early August. The rest of the year I'm completely indifferent to cottage cheese, and have to remind myself to use up what's left of the last container bought for the summer season.
Personally, I find cottage cheese too mild, and bland - too tasteless - to hold much interest for me; for the sort of tasty, summer snack you have described, feta cheese or young mozzarella would hit that spot.
Or, some sort of cream cheese, rolled into balls, and marinated in sunflower oil with herbs and garlic - a few companies in this part of the world (such as Boilie) make such a product, and in summer, it is delicious with flavoursome tomatoes, and fresh bread.
Yes my more usual summer salad can run to some version of an "American Greek salad" -- shredded romaine or iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers (usually, sometimes not), red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese... oil and vinegar, Italian seasonings. it's my go-to when I'm not having a salad that features a little chicken or fish. But when it gets as hot as it's been lately I can end up heading for the plain side of everything out of preference for some reason. Or just a nearly complete lack of interest!?
When the weather breaks back down into even the mid-70ºF range, more normal for here in summer, I suddenly get interested in spicier things again and will even make curried dishes for supper, or at lunchtime load up a cold tomato soup with tabasco and lemon, a sort of faux gaspacho if too lazy to make a real one.
That cream cheese concoction sounds interesting with the tomatoes and a nice bread. I'll file that away for a homebrew September trial... as marinated cheeses go, I've only ever heard of feta marinated in olive oil and basil, which is quite good.
In my middle-school years we lived across the boulevard from a gigantic produce farm run by Italian-Americans; they supplied local restaurants and also had a farmstand on the premises where the matriarch sold specialities of the season made from her family's handed-down versions of Mediterranean recipes, things like a giardiniera of marinated mixed vegetables... and sometimes that marinated feta with basil.
Yes my more usual summer salad can run to some version of an "American Greek salad" -- shredded romaine or iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers (usually, sometimes not), red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese... oil and vinegar, Italian seasonings. it's my go-to when I'm not having a salad that features a little chicken or fish. But when it gets as hot as it's been lately I can end up heading for the plain side of everything out of preference for some reason. Or just a nearly complete lack of interest!?
When the weather breaks back down into even the mid-70ºF range, more normal for here in summer, I suddenly get interested in spicier things again and will even make curried dishes for supper, or at lunchtime load up a cold tomato soup with tabasco and lemon, a sort of faux gaspacho if too lazy to make a real one.
That cream cheese concoction sounds interesting with the tomatoes and a nice bread. I'll file that away for a homebrew September trial... as marinated cheeses go, I've only ever heard of feta marinated in olive oil and basil, which is quite good.
In my middle-school years we lived across the boulevard from a gigantic produce farm run by Italian-Americans; they supplied local restaurants and also had a farmstand on the premises where the matriarch sold specialities of the season made from her family's handed-down versions of Mediterranean recipes, things like a giardiniera of marinated mixed vegetables... and sometimes that marinated feta with basil.
The Czechs also have an amazing (but strongly flavoured) marinated (or pickled) cheese; it goes by the name of Nakladany Hermelin.
Actually, it is a pub food, - often served in pubs and bars, and with rye bread, a superb accompaniment to beers.
Re the marinated cream cheese balls (or pearls), you can find them in any good deli here; because of the oil, they keep well, too, and they are brilliant (and easy to prepare) on bread, with (really flavoursome) tomatoes, herbs, and a drizzle of either olive oil, or their own sunflower oil (which is usually flavoured with garlic and herbs).
Marinated feta is good, (but I prefer it fresh), but - to my taste - this is even better.
I'm going to look for that Boile product or similar over in Binghamton or up in Ithaca at a Wegmans next time I'm shopping out a list of stuff not carried around here.
A half decent cheesemonger's should also stock them; they are a terrific picnic (or fast lunch) food.
My brother suggested using their oil on a salad - green leaves, or any sort of salad - once you have finished the cheese in the jar (they are usually available in glass jars), and he is absolutely right. Wonderful summer food (as long as it is warm and sunny).
Pineapple preserves on the plain yogurt. I've never had fruit preserves or anything fruit based with cheddar before apart from caramelized onions. I decided against having yogurt. Wasn't hungry and was feeling tired.
Ah, pineapple preserves on plain yogurt? Yes, that could be quite lovely and very tasty.
Grapes always work well with cheese, and I have had apples, as well; but, in my experience, apricot preserve works exceptionally well with robust cheeses such as cheddar, and indeed, goat's cheese, also.
Membrillo (quince paste) is used in Spain (and is delicious) with hard cheeses (Manchego) and goat's cheese; I have seen it used on cheeseboards and it is very tasty.
Almost out of havarti, one of the table cheeses I expect to find when I look in the fridge... Breakfast today was some of that melted onto a toasted English muffin with a careful shake of red pepper flake for the merry hell of it.
Posted English muffin (with almost anything) sounds good.
In the cheesemonger's earlier this week, I discussed those cheese pearls (or balls), as I realised that they are awfully had (and very tasty); there were a few different locally produced artisan ones in the fridge, but the staff - with refreshing candour - (and this is an outlet fro new and experimental as well as the standard cheeses) recommended Boilie goat's cheese, so I bought a jar of that, - a store cupboard (or fridge) staple, and it is currently resting in my fridge.
Yes I'm still planning on rounding up some marinated cheese balls next time I'm upstate. There's a wonderful alliance of local cheesemakers whose small family farms are in the Finger Lakes area between Seneca and Cayuga lakes; their products are sometimes available in cheese shops and supermarket cheese sections in the Ithaca area.
The thing is, precisely because they are preserved in oil, they have a nice shelf life, and unopened, will remain fresh for ages in a fridge; excellent for people who are distant from shops which stock such delights, or not fully mobile, to know that treats are lurking in corners of a fridge.
I've also posted about it countless times and have made my own. The cheese in question was cheddar, which makes little sense to consume with something sweet. Coincidentally, there's a large chunk of Manchego in the refrigerator.