Love cheese. Go through an absurdly huge amount of it week to week. Our big ones on the regular rotation are sharp cheddar, low-moisture mozz, American cheese (for grilled cheese and, inexplicably, my gf’s nachos – she prefers melty shingled cheese to the inconsistent spottiness of melted shreds) and decent aged Parmigiano-Regiano; we plow through that all of that stuff.
We also love a good goat cheese and/or feta for salad and the latter in Mediterranean foods. I’m a giant fan of queso fresco, queso quesadilla, and monterrey jack, though I don’t have excuses to use em quite as much. We like brie (along with cheddar, mozz, and goat cheese) in our Mac n Cheese, and love a good baked brie, but it’s too much hassle to make and especially eat ourselves usually. I’ve been using more and more Pecorino Romano for various Roman styled pastas like Carbonara and Cacio e Pepe. A nice gruyere for meltiness, provolone for pizza or sub sandwiches or cheesesteak. Recently found a love for ricotta in gnocchi and white pizza. Full moisture fresh mozz for italian subs and piaza, of course.
Don’t hate, my favorite cheese dish is whatever cheese it is with a water cracker. And that’s it. After that it would be any number of dishes that highlight the cheese, less so the rest of the dish.
And my most expensive one would have been something from here:
True story: when I was an undergrad, my best friend was from a very wealthy family. They had long ago concluded (sensibly) that it was silly to just keep giving each other gifts at Christmas that nobody really wanted, and nobody had room for anyway.
So, instead, they exchanged foods. Every year, his grandfather would send him this huge wheel of blue cheese. And we would buy boxes of Triskets and sit around all evening (4 or 5 of us) playing RPGs (mostly Warhammer in those days) and eat that entire wheel of blue cheese. His wife wouldn’t come near us!
Hahaha, I can smell that just from the description. If just one person is eating blue cheese, stand back. If everyone is eating blue cheese, you’re okay.
Yeah, I am an unabashed lover of cheese in all its varieties. There are so many flavor and texture options its insane. I would hate to be locked down to only one variety but if forced I would have to go with Parmigiano-Reggiano. It simply has so many uses in cooking and I use it for every thing from Alfredo to broiled Zucchini. If I was stuck with a more garden variety cheese then it would have to be an quality extra-sharp cheddar.
My favorite cheese dish was from a meal we had in Honolulu at the Alley Restaurant inside Aiea Bowl…it’s a bowling alley. You may have seen it if you watch Food Network, as it’s been featured at least a couple of times.
This place serves all the usual fare you’d expect, like chicken fingers and such, but on Tuesday’s they do a limited number of gourmet meals on a 5 course prix fix menu at a stupid price (think it was 40 bucks)… My wife and I had homemade cheddar biscuits, a wonderful salad, Mahi Mahi Piccata, Beef Wellington with the best asparagus I’ve ever eaten (didn’t like it at all until then) and an absurdly good apple cake.
But the other thing that was included was some simple linguini that they stirred around inside a wheel of Pecorino Romano with a bit of olive oil then topped with a little basil and prosciutto. It’s difficult to describe this dish, because it sounds so simple, but I’ve never had anything like it. The cheese evenly coated every single bit of each piece of pasta. It was incredibly rich yet also quite light. Honestly I can’t do it justice trying to describe it.
Probably my favorite dark-horse cheese is manouri, which is kind of like a softer, creamier feta. My wife really enjoys sheep and goats milk cheeses, so we end up eating those a fair amount. Manchego is also always good.
Rather than crackers, we usually get a good baguette and eat various cheeses with that and some assorted charcuterie type things (pate, sausage, olives, etc).
Parmigiano-Reggiano and Cheddar are probably my top two favorites. Tillamook does indeed make some delicious cheese @ineffablebob and I’m glad our local grocery store started stocking it here in Michigan, especially after listening to my Washington-native friend brag about it for years. They have some nice ice cream as well.
For years I thought I hated blue cheese, but after trying Stilton last year something clicked and I’ve become hooked on it and it’s currently one of my favorite evening snacks. I haven’t ventured into Gorgonzola or Roquefort territory yet.
Best cheese dish? Mac and cheese of course. I’m always, always on the lookout for a new and better recipe.
Stilton is amazing in that it’s a blue where you can literally get the earthy flavors of what the cows fed on but also just a deep, not overly pungent distinctive blue cheese flavor as well. Note that when you try gogonzola there are two main types, piccante (sharp/spicy/hot) and dolce (sweet.) Neither really fall so much into those names so try both when you can. The piccante or mountain gorgonzola tastes quite like Stilton, subdued and earthy. The dolce tastes more like a young blue and is sometimes so soft it’s spreadable.
Roquefort is like an advanced class and though I highly encourage it, it’s like a flavor bomb in comparison to the other two.
You’ve mentioned the three best blue cheese types though, by far.
A question for you guys: we really like goat cheese but hate how much it crumbles. I’ve hear of methods to make it more spreadable, however. Any tips?
Its very rich, very pungent, a taste nuclear explosion up in the megatonnage range. My wife could only manage half of her 1/6th piece shown, so although that teaspoon shows its not a big piece its $49 tag will be worth it as its 3 portions each, possibly more. I had it with some thin toasted sourdough rye, celery and chutney.
tbh although i loved it with truffle I probably wouldnt normally buy brie/tunworth that ripe and strong. That piece even has a hefty ammonia kick hence me adding some accompaniments as worked my way through it. Im more a fan of hard cheeses. It’s a nice treat to start my summer holiday-at-home though.
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