@allison wrote, “ I like dairy too much to give it up“ I have been buying expensive cheddars- Irish (Kerry Gold) and English from the Murray’s Cheese booth a Kroger.
All my life I turned my nose up at vivid orange cheddar cheese. A couple of years ago I wanted to try English Cheddar and I found Murray’s.
So yesterday I was buying my English cheddar. I found I like the English better than the Irish. This other customer and I got into a conversation about cheeses. She was buying a variety to treat her women friends at a gathering.
One of the cheeses you picked up was a stilton with bueberries in it. She said it is a wonderful cheese to have a breakfast. She sold me. I picked up a wedge to buy with my cheddar.
I just had half of it for lunch. Now I am sold by my mouth. It is not as firm as the cheddar, but is a bit crumbley. I can’t really describe the taste and mouthfeel but it was very pleasant.
The remainder will be for breakfast tomorrow.
The irony is that I don’t eat meat on Friday. It’s an old Catholic thing and I am an old Catholic.
Part of my growing up was in New Orleans and Fridays were not a day of penance but of feasting on the bounty of the Gulf of Mexico. I didn’t learn about suffering ha ha, until we moved to Texas to tuna salad sandwiches and fish sticks.
So yesterday I bought 2 small amounts of cheese that cost as much as 4 gallons of gasoline.
I have two minds about Kroger’s, Fred Meyer’s on the West Coast. In one I want to run as far away as possible, in the other they were, apart from the Ashland Co-op which is 140 mile round trip from where I live, the only place to get half reasonable food.
In that regard, perhaps only, I missed the CA Bay Area; there was a Trader Joe’s there. In fact there is one, now, in Medford (only 100 miles round trip) and that is where we go for the bespoke groceries.
Trader Joe’s cheddar (the shop brand) is reasonable, in fact quite good. I would say it compares reasonably with real farmhouse cheddar.
Alas cheddar and stilton are consigned to the same mire of despond. It is worth visiting Cheddar, but, IMO (having been to both) the Oregon Caves are a better option; less people, more information. Stilton, however, you will find hard to discover on the map; it’s there, it’s a small village with, I guess, a Big Cheese. It is one of my favourites:
Parmesan, real Parmesan.
Stilton. It’s a syrupy mess but it works, please do not combine it with Port; they work perfectly just in close proximity.
Cheddar. True farmhouse cheddar; slightly salty, very slightly bitter. Best eaten alone. Take care not to gorge yourself.
With Stilton, there are only a handful of dairies that are allowed to make it, and to me there are differences in quality. The two I prefer are Cropwell Bishop and Colston Bassett.
I too am a Kroger shopper…the Fred Meyer fuel points are a good deal and have saved me hundreds of $$ on gasoline each year. Grocery prices are a bit higher than Winco or Costco but the selection is better and many more sale priced items.
For those wanting a cheese treat: Cougar Gold cheese is made on campus at WSU and is tasty! Available on line:
@CarlosLuis I got sold on Stilton at the Ivy Barn, a dinner restaurant near Newbury in the UK! They made a stuffed steak with it, slit the meat in half to creat a pocket, stuffed it with Stilton, then cooked the steak normally. The melted Stilton became more mild, less “in your face”, and flavored the whole steak beautifully! Try it with buttered asperagrass or roasted Brussel Sprouts! Delicious!
You’re being unkind,@TomH, now I want to go to the UK. And they say British and Irish food is awful. My experience with Irish food did not prove that, quite the contrary. This was from humble pub grub to Shela’s table. Well she was trained by Darina Allen.