The Cheese Thread

[Big Boy]

C'mon guys, please! This is about cheese - is there nothing you don't want to argue about?

[europtimiste]

It's funny that Brits, Yanks or Aussies want to teach Europeens , countries who have largest choice of cheeses and
an old tradition for cheese making about quality and look. As I said I prefer a good looking cheese than a crumbled one.

[HHTel]

Culture and education, coming from you..... perlease!

I used to help in the churning process at a farm when I was a kid. There is everything you need to know about cheese if you bother to look. What is more common is the fact that a hard cheese like cheddar will become crumbly as it ages and dries out.
I would guess that you think processed cheese is the bee's knees.

Processed cheese (also known as prepared cheese, cheese product, plastic cheese or cheese singles) is a food product made from cheese and other unfermented dairy ingredients mixed with emulsifiers. Additional ingredients, such as vegetable oils, salt, food coloring, or sugar may be included.

Cheese is made by adding an enzyme called rennet to milk, then straining the curd from the whey. This gives you a mixture of milk fat held together with proteins – mainly casein. Fresh cheese contains lots of water so it’s soft and delicate.

As it matures into cheddar, the water evaporates and the cheese becomes firmer. After a week or two, you have mild cheddar, which is quite strong and elastic as the casein holds it together. But some rennet is always left behind and manufacturers often inject other enzymes as well. These slowly break down the casein as the cheddar matures. Mature cheddar is crumbly because it’s drier, but also because it doesn’t have as much casein reinforcement.

[Big Boy]

The key point is we all have different tastes, so there will never be 100% agreement, especially when a product such as cheese comes in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Personally, the stronger the better for me, and so long as the taste is there, I have no problem with crumbly, but don't mind solid either. Taste is the key for me.

[HHTel]

Sorry, BB. Just trying to impart information on how cheese is made and what to look for in a good cheese.

That's my last word.

[m_right]

Does anybody know where cheese is still being sold relatively cheaply?

[Big Boy]

AP Interfoods, and maybe Nannys.

[HHTel]

I buy the 3 kg blocks from Nany's. Edam cheese which is fine for cooking, salads, and especially baked potatoes. They also have 1 kg bags of grated cheddar which I go for as I'm too lazy to grate my own.

Can't tell you the price as I usually spend a couple of thousand each time I visit. Never checked individual prices.

[Big Boy]

Unless you're buying other stuff, that is a very expensive 500฿/Kg.

Edam, which I find acceptable at AP is 200฿/Kg.

I must say, in the UK, I was not a fan of Edam, but the stuff they sell here is completely different in both taste and texture. I bought some initially for my dogs (see OP), but tried a bit - bought nothing else since.

[HHTel]

Unless you're buying other stuff, that is a very expensive 500฿/Kg.

Cheese is only part of my shop there. Pies, sausages, bacon, beans, soup, Branston, gravy granules, puddings just to list a few. Cheese is quite low on the list. I think I pay 200 baht for a kilo of grated cheddar. It's the only thing I can remember buying on it's own.

[bigston]

It the place
Nanys / Nannys
the same as Nanys Cafe, a few hundred metres north of Market Village
thanks.

[Big Boy]

Yes

[Dannie Boy]

I called into AP Interfoods this morning to buy some cheese and I noticed that whilst the range has increased, so have the prices, such that it’s probably cheaper at Makro.

[buksida]

Must have just happened then as I loaded up at AP last weekend and the prices were still half of what you'd pay in Makro.

Shame if it has gone up, reasonably priced cheese was too good to be true it seems!

[Big Boy]

The prices have increased considerably, but still cheaper than Makro.