Cheese!!!

[Food Lady]

Now that I have your attention...

So I have more money for food now than I did in the beginning of the year, and I've gone a bit cheese-crazy. I'm trying new things, so I just made cheese toast with gruyere and Danish butter. Mmmmmm. So, what are your favorites? How do you use them? Anyone use Stilton? It intrigues me.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Stilton is my favorite cheese.

Hard to find, though. I think a lot of folks are afraid of it.

[TheMike]

I really like "smoked gouda" has a very rich flavour and creamy texure. Stilton is nice, I also like various blue cheeses.
Luckily we have a store in town called "the cheese warehouse" almost every kind you can think of.

[Food Lady]

Does stilton taste like American blue? I spied some at my favorite grocery. It has so many brands of everything that I oft say that if you can't find something there, you can't find it anywhere. I also saw gorgonzola, which I think is Italian??

[Whiskey]

Muenster, Horseradish (white) cheddar, Brie are my main cheeses

[Food Lady]

Anyone have any recipes?

[pitmonkey]

aged sharp white cheddar

[Whiskey]

Anyone have any recipes?

obtain one mouth (preferably your own)
obtain some cheese

put cheese in mouth
chew, swallow

obtain red and/or white wine

drink red and/or white wine

repeat until satisfied.

thats all i got.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Make an alfredo sauce, but experiment using different cheeses.

One of my best dishes is smoked gouda and parmesan alfredo over sauteed chicken and low carb pasta. Serve with hot habenaro sauce over the top.

The same thing, only with sharp cheddar is good over hard boiled eggs and bacon.

[MaggieTheCat]

I've tried a lot of different kinds of cheese. Cheddar is still my favorite. I found a great recipe yesterday for a cheddar cheese sauce that you can use as a dip for chips, fries, etc. or whatever else you want. We put it on tacos.

8oz cheddar, shredded (get a block of it and shred your own)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
12oz can evaporated milk
hot sauce, jalapenos, garlic, onion, salt, pepper to taste

Toss the shredded cheese in cornstarch (you can also use part pepper jack instead of all cheddar.) Add 1cup evaporated milk and heat over medium low heat until creamy and melty. Add more evaporated milk if you want it thinner. Add any add-ins you'd like.

I also like baked brie quite a bit. Take a wheel of it, cover it with your favorite preserve and nuts (I use tart cherry preserve and pistachios.) Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees until melty. Serve with chips, crackers, fruit, veggies, etc. You can also cover it with preserve and then wrap it in puff pastry and bake until puff pastry is golden brown. I forget if you have to increase the oven temperature, though -- probably, to get the puff pastry to rise properly.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Havarti! I can sweep the Cooperative for the other kinds I like to get when I feel the urge to spend on cheese...

[Magpie]

You should try Blue Haze. It's a smoked blue cheese. (There's one from Oregon as well, but I can't remember what it's called, and Jackdaw wasn't as impressed with it, he says it was a lot less strong). My only blue is Roquefort Papillion or Ewenity, because I can't have cow's milk.

If you want recipes you can't go wrong with macaroni and cheese. You can honestly put any kind of cheese in there. Make a white sauce. Add cheese. Pour over macaroni and cheese. It's as easy as that. (The one catch is that you want to make sure you have very low heat, if any, when adding the cheese, so that it doesn't separate. My dad does it in the microwave, but I have yet to get that down).

[telecom_goddess]

Double Gloucester from England.....It's really sharp, sharper than cheddar and really good. I don't have recipies besides what Whiskey said

[tacohuman]

ah, a thread near and dear to my heart. i make and sell cheese for a living. i can go on for hours about all types.

gouda is always good, but i'd really recommend an aged one. a good 4 or 5-year gouda has an amazingly rich smoky, whisky-like flavor with hints of caramel.

my favorite french cheese is ossau-iraty, a basque sheep's milk cheese with a touch of sweetness and heavy herbacious overtones.

stilton is a decent blue. i carry four varieties in varying strengths and textures. my favorite blues at the moment though are the domestics made by rogue creamery out of portland. their river blue is a seasonal that's been soaked in pear brandy and is the most amazing blue i've ever tasted ever. it won the ribbon for best in show at the 2009 american cheese society conference.

manchego from spain is a great all-around cheese that pairs well with almost anything. it's typically my go-to when people want a recommendation but aren't sure what they like or how they're serving it. i'd recommend a 6-month to 1-year manchego. 3-month is a bit more common, and has a good flavor, but the flavor really develops a beautiful complexity with age.

as for cheddars, i generally avoid any aged less then two years. my favorite is one called hook's farm from wisconsin. it's been aged 10-12 years and is absolutely delicious. it's a bit hard to find, and pricey when you do (usually in the $40/lb range), but so worth it.

my favorite cheese ever is a spanish cheese from the canary islands called majorero. aged a year or more, it's a goat's milk cheese with a firm texture, rich body, and spicy flavor with hints of wild thyme.

goat cheeses as a category are my favorite cheeses. fresh chevres are generally best in the spring, as the goats have just kidded and are producing a rich, flavorful milk heavy on the caproics. i'd recommend finding a local goat dairy and seeing what they have to offer, as the prepackaged chevres that have added preservatives to extend shelf life are generally of inferior quality.

[Amusement Gal]

Flagship cheese, straight from Seattle! <3 That stuff is super sharp, super sweet, and omgexpensive, but it tastes sooo goooooodddddd....*drool* I'm not normally this enthusiastic, but with cheese I'll make an exception.

Asiago, Gruyere, Havarti, Gouda, Extra Sharp cheddar, Port Wine Cheeseballs, Swiss, Pepperjack, Goat Cheese, and the occasional Buttermilk Blue cheese. Also, Feta. The good stuff, not the crap that's half salt.

As for recipes, cheese and fruits like grapes, tart apples, pears, and figs are awesome. Don't forget cheese fondue! That'll give you plenty of yum with some fresh dipped artisan bread.