Bad Manners and Brimstone

I go through phases, but seeing upthread someone mentioned gouda...  I'm now craving gouda with cumin seeds.

My husband invariably brings back a load of stinky cheese when we go to France [époisses is so smelly it is banned on public transport - that's one of his favourites to booby trap the fridge with]; I get a bit embarrassed if we have visitors/workmen...

I'll offer tea/coffee, go to the fridge to get the milk [we buy it specially for guests], and open a Pandora's Box of smells.  I almost invariably feel the need to apologise/explain that I'm not storing decomposing rodents in there.

Occasionally, I will think we've got a mouse, or a potato has rolled off somewhere to die, and ask The Captain if he can smell it.  Nope, he just opened the fridge door.

I like Mirabella carré l'est - it's a soft, rinded, cheese that's well worth a taste if you are in Eastern France - I gave some to my aunt on the last visit to my cousin, and she phoned up yesterday to tell me how yummy it is.

Quote from: jpcher on June 10, 2018, 11:39:31 am

Where oh where can I find such a delicacy?*

My parents live in Wisconsin and there's this little cheese store on the way to their house that I absolutely adore. I go in there and it's like a playground of delicacies.

Snipping the quote tree.

It can be found at: https://coliseumbarmadison.com/

OH! Thank you! I drive through Madison to get to my parents house (they're about an hour west of Madison) . . . maybe I'll plan a stop here next time I go up.

Quote from: Reika on June 10, 2018, 08:54:52 pm

Quote from: jpcher on June 10, 2018, 11:39:31 am

Where oh where can I find such a delicacy?*

My parents live in Wisconsin and there's this little cheese store on the way to their house that I absolutely adore. I go in there and it's like a playground of delicacies.

Snipping the quote tree.

It can be found at: https://coliseumbarmadison.com/

OH! Thank you! I drive through Madison to get to my parents house (they're about an hour west of Madison) . . . maybe I'll plan a stop here next time I go up.

And stop at this lovely Cheese Store: https://fromagination.com/

Britain has become cheese heaven in the last 20-odd years, if you take the trouble to find a good delicatessen rather than buy in the supermarket. It came about because of changes in the EU agricultural policy rules that meant (please don't ask me to explain why or how) that many small dairy farmers could no longer sell their milk. Solution: make it into cheese and sell that! Not only have the new wave of artisan cheese makers restored the quality of the traditional English cheeses (many of which had been downgraded into plasticky pasteurised bricks) and revived ones which had been forgotten, they have branched out into styles of cheese never before made in these islands. It's all brilliant.

Any Brimstoners who live in or near London, or pay it a visit on holiday, should make time to visit one of the stores of the Neal's Yard Dairy, https://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/. It's not the only great cheese company in Britain now, but it's one of the biggest and best. And not only will they let you taste everything before you buy, they will almost refuse to sell it to you if you don't taste. I once raced there in my lunch hour and panted 'I'd like 6 ounces of Ardrahan please', and when I saw the assistant go to cut a taster for me 'No, don't bother, I've bought Ardrahan here before and know how it tastes'. The assistant simply said 'No: you know what that piece tasted like, then. But all our cheeses are constantly ripening, and even the milk they're made of changes character through the year as the grass the animals eat changes, so you can't know what this piece of Ardrahan tastes like today till you sample it'.  So I did. She was right; just as yummy but slightly different.

Britain has become cheese heaven in the last 20-odd years, if you take the trouble to find a good delicatessen rather than buy in the supermarket. It came about because of changes in the EU agricultural policy rules that meant (please don't ask me to explain why or how) that many small dairy farmers could no longer sell their milk. Solution: make it into cheese and sell that! Not only have the new wave of artisan cheese makers restored the quality of the traditional English cheeses (many of which had been downgraded into plasticky pasteurised bricks) and revived ones which had been forgotten, they have branched out into styles of cheese never before made in these islands. It's all brilliant.

Any Brimstoners who live in or near London, or pay it a visit on holiday, should make time to visit one of the stores of the Neal's Yard Dairy, https://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/. It's not the only great cheese company in Britain now, but it's one of the biggest and best. And not only will they let you taste everything before you buy, they will almost refuse to sell it to you if you don't taste. I once raced there in my lunch hour and panted 'I'd like 6 ounces of Ardrahan please', and when I saw the assistant go to cut a taster for me 'No, don't bother, I've bought Ardrahan here before and know how it tastes'. The assistant simply said 'No: you know what that piece tasted like, then. But all our cheeses are constantly ripening, and even the milk they're made of changes character through the year as the grass the animals eat changes, so you can't know what this piece of Ardrahan tastes like today till you sample it'.  So I did. She was right; just as yummy but slightly different.

I occasionally used to collect cheese orders from Paxton & Whitfield (near Piccadilly Circus; well worth a visit), and they were the same.  It was an occasional job when the chauffeurs/commissionaires where I temped couldn't make it, but they treated me beautifully.  Even if all I was asking for was a "stinky French cheese my mum will never have heard of".

The assistants were not judgmental at all of my reaction to be offered a bit to taste: "if my mum will like it, I won't...  May I try a bit of that lovely-looking cheddar that I'm not going to buy, instead?" - they just seemed delighted to introduce someone to a new taste, and talk about cheese with someone who loved it too.

I've probably posted in the old place about "Judy cheese": a friend of my parents was in danger of being fined an enormous sum of money for accidentally going over quota on her milk yield, and instead of emptying however many thousands of gallons down the drain, she had a cheesemaker make a batch of cheddar for her.  She gave some to my dad, and my mum promptly bought a whole bunch more from her, gave her friends a taste (and then ordered even more on her friends' behalf).

When Judy had sold all the stock she'd kept back, she told us of a farm shop who had taken the rest; we visited them, and everyone was raving about this cheese.  It was the best cheddar I've ever tasted, and we all really wished Judy had gone into cheese production with the expert instead of selling it to the Milk Marketing Board.

Oh, well, that was before artisan cheeses made a resurgence; lucky us now.

Over the weekend, I was at a ladies night with a few friends at someone's home. Everyone usually brings an app or a bottle of wine to share at these events. One of them has really jumped on the "eat local" bandwagon and is a volunteer coordinator for an area farmer's market. Someone had brought a cheese plate with a really good local goat cheese but also cheeses from other regions including a really good Croatian cheese.

Someone asked the "eat local" friend her opinion about cheeses. She's all for eat local until it comes to her cheeses but then the world is her bounty.

I like to eat local if I can; my husband is a bit more fervent with his efforts...

Until if comes to giving up coffee!   He will buy local cheeses, and then transport them home [to stink up our fridge], and I'm guessing that as we're going to be coming back from Burgundy (say) anyway, it's not adding any food miles to his cheese?

It's amazing to find people's weak spots, isn't it?

Quote

I occasionally used to collect cheese orders from Paxton & Whitfield (near Piccadilly Circus; well worth a visit), and they were the same. 

I remember (being a Londoner, over 60) when Paxton & Whitfield were pretty much the only worthwhile speciality cheese shop in London, and had the same posh aura as all the other famous shops in St James's - Fortnum & Masons, John Lobb shoemakers,  Berry Bros & Rudd wine merchants, Locke the hatters, and the rest. And how my French teacher cut them mercilessly down to size.

Mam'zelle Boudier was a hefty middle-aged Norman with whom even the most unruly pupils did not dream of messing. She gave us to understand that French cheeses were habitually served in Britain far too ripe, for historical reasons - in the days before fast refrigerated transport, these cheeses had always arrived in Britain past their best, and British people just assumed they were supposed to be like that. She told us that once when her sister was due to pay her a visit from Normandy, she had sailed into Paxton & Whitfield and demanded to be shown a Camembert. The tailcoated assistant (St James's was like that then) brought one and placed it reverently on the counter: Mlle Boudier simply placed her thumb on it and poked a hole right through the paper into the cheese. "Overripe! Bring me another!" So he did (believe me, nobody disobeyed Mlle Boudier), and the same thing happened. And again. And again. It ended with Mlle Boudier sweeping majestically out, declaring "There is not a single cheese in this establishment that I would not be ashamed to set before my sister!", leaving every Camembert in the shop with a thumb-sized hole in it and the cowering assistant whimpering faintly behind the counter.

She sounds like a teacher of the old school!  I have to admit I prefer my camembert not so ripe that I can smell it [I think it's ammonia?].

Your story reminds me of the time my mum was offered a 'ripe' camembert at the local cheese stall [Mum was known there for liking stinky cheeses], and she took one look at the wriggling maggots and said: "I think that's a little too ripe for me."  I've heard about that being OK with stilton [not sure if it is], and boggled at casu marzu, but not for camembert.

I'm sure Mam'zelle Boudier would have had something to say about that!