CHEESEY LOVERS

Saturday, January 20th is ‘National Cheese Lover’s Day.  How many different kinds of cheese can you think of?  There is at least one cheese for every letter of the  Alphabet, but most letters have multiple cheeses, many more than I could ever thnk of.  I could only come up with about 45 different cheeses without having to look them up.  I was flabbergasted when I did look them and came up with 613.  There are probably even more than the ones I found.  Granted, many of these cheese are variations on a theme.   That is, there are several different types of Cheddars – it seems that each of the English speaking countries have their own.  Then there are the variations on Bleu Cheeses, Brie, Swiss and on and on.

Cheese is usually made from Cow’s Milk but there are cheeses made from Goat’s Milk and from Sheep’s Milk.  If you want to count them as Cheese, then there those made from Tofu – a product that is supposed to resemble cheese, but certainly does not possess all of the qualities of ‘real’ cheese.

I was going to write this blog on all the different types of cheese and the uses that we have for them, but upon second thought, I am going to limit it to America’s favorite Cheese and i am guessing that would be Cheddar.  Unfortunately, some of our Cheese Producer’s have taken a really good Cheddar Cheese and then turned it into something that may or may not be considered Cheese by an afficionado.

Cheddar Cheese is usually a firm Cheese, dark Yellow in color.  The color certainly has to be added and hopefully it is from natural sources.  There is also White Cheddar and if I am not mistaken Irish Cheddar is usually white.  Cheddar Cheese also comes in many taste variations.  There is Mild, Medium, Sharp and Extra Sharp.  The Sharper the Cheese the firmer it usually is and the reason for this is that to be sharp a cheese is aged longer and when it is aged longer, it becomes drier and therefore, harder.

American Cheese, which is made from Cheddar Cheese is a version of Cheddar that is ground up and has gum arabic added to it to give it the consistency that some of us are familiar with.  Cheese Spreads are also variations on Cheddar.

Cheddar Cheese makes great sandwiches and toppings for Hamburgers.  It is also the basis for one of our most popular dishes and that Is Macaroni and Cheese.  Cheddar Cheese is also a popular cheese for omelets, biscuits, breads and one of our most popular and succesful snack products – Cheese Puffs.

I was going to write this blog on cheese which I did.  But after finding out how many different cheeses there are, I have decided that I will do a weekly Cheese Blog on either one type of cheese and its variations and/or once having finished the variants, will concentrate on the alphabet starting with A or Z?  Please let me know.  Would be much easier to start with Z as there are only 3 different types of cheese that I could find starting with the letter Z.

For a good Cheese Dish for ‘National Cheese Day’ try my Macaroni and Cheese Supreme  macaroni-and-cheese-supreme/ or a Cheesy Broccoli side dish  /cheesy-broccoli-casserole/to go with your meat entree

Happy ‘National Cheese Day’ everyone!