What are your favorite Cheeses ?

Francesca said:
@MypinchofItaly

Thank you, I had forgotten ..

I had some "Alghero Port" on my last trip to the Madrid Capital in May, during a Labor Day long weekend holidays !

At a lovely Sardinian & Regional Italian Restaurant .. Unfortunately, the Sardinian owner Ignazio had decided to return to Calgliari and closed the restaurant .. It was the best Italian Restaurant I had encountered in Spain.
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Next time I go to Cagliari I'll say hello to Ignazio, hahahaha ...
 
Francesca said:
During the 1990s, I was involved in a Project with a now, defunct print magazine called Gourmet, The Magazine of Good Living. The Creative Director, Richard Ferretti, had published his home made fresh ricotta recipe ..

My mom has been preparing her´s since time memorial for the renowned "Dali & later El Bulli" dessert made famous, "Ricotta and Honey" dessert called "Mato e Mel" ..

The key difference is, we use fresh goat milk ..
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That's interesting, Franny. My niece happens to be an executive editor at Conde Nast publications.

What project were you involved with? I'll ask her to research it, see what cones from their archives.
 
@buckytom

The author of this freelance Project was in Italy in the very early 1990s and we met via an independent group of tourism related publishing travellers, travelling in Italy and we had all stayed at the same Hotel. He was one of them. This was approx. 25 years ago. He had prepared some home made Ricotta and I had taken an interest as we have a Catalan dessert which uses home made Ricotta ( goat milk verses cow milk ). And he had explained to us all at the Hotel restaurant, his recipe. I had written about it in a Company newsletter ..

This had nothing to do with Mr. Feretti´s directorship at Gourmet Magazine. He was on vacation travelling in Italy. So do not waste your time. He is probably retired for quite some time as the Gourmet Magazine is defunct for at least a decade and a half ..

And 1 thing: My name is Françesca, not Franny.
 
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You met a guy in a hotel, talked about food, and blogged about it? That was your project with Gourmet?
lol.
 
@buckytom

I did not meet " a guy in a hotel " .. We (my husband and I) met a group of American Tourists related publishing travellers, who stayed at the same hotel, as my Tourism Group coming from Barcelona.

The Hotel had a tiny "cooking" demonstration in which, this man who was affilated with Gourmet Magazine, prepared some home made Ricotta for the 2 tour groups at the Hotel.

His Ricotta was exceptionally extraordinary. Our newsletter covers all our tourism travel groups, hotels we recommend and the interesting cultural visits, monuments not to miss, restaurants we have eaten at etcetra .. He was very pleased that my staff wrote about his Ricotta and published the recipe with his written permission.

Thank you.
 
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On the subject of Stinking Bishop (which we were a while back), we came across the little devil in a delicatessen in Perth today. There was a conveniently sized piece going, so we acquired it along with some Cashel Blue (a very nice blue cheese from County Tipperary).
 
@Duck59,

Wow. Sounds fascinating ..

Is it a raw sheep or cow´s milk, blue cheese or a blend ?

Thank you for writing about it here ..

Have a lovely trip ..
 
Cashel Blue is a cow's milk cheese. Their website tells us that the ingredients are: Pasteurised cow’s milk, salt, rennet, starter cultures and Penicillum Roquefortii. The rennet is vegetarian.

There is also an organic version of Cashel Blue and the same people make another blue cheese called Crozier Blue, which is made using sheep's milk. Lastly, they produce one more sheep's milk cheese called Shepherd's Store, a semi-hard cheese that isn't in any way blue!
 
Duck59 said:
Cashel Blue is a cow's milk cheese. Their website tells us that the ingredients are: Pasteurised cow’s milk, salt, rennet, starter cultures and Penicillum Roquefortii. The rennet is vegetarian.

There is also an organic version of Cashel Blue and the same people make another blue cheese called Crozier Blue, which is made using sheep's milk. Lastly, they produce one more sheep's milk cheese called Shepherd's Store, a semi-hard cheese that isn't in any way blue!
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@Duck59

Thank you very much for the names & info on each of the Perth blue cheeses. I am sure that they are quite wonderful.

My faves in the Blue Vein Genre are: Asturian Cabrales, Asturian Picón ( both are aged in caves in leaves), Roquefort and Gorgonzola. Though I have had numerous non exported blue vein cheeses in both Asturias, Spain and France .. There are also some lesser known blues called: Valdeón and Gamoneú and both are amazingly wonderful.

There is also a cheese prepared in Zamora, Castille León, with red wines from the Toro, Zamora Desigation of Wines, which is to die and go to heaven for .. It is called: Zamorano. Quite an exemplary addition to a cheese board ..

And a non common, non exported blue from Treviso, Italy called Beju Treviso ..

Have a lovely day ..
 
One to add on Irish blue cheeses...Bellingham Blue is an unpasteurised cheese made from cow's milk. It comes from County Louth, just south of the border of the six-county state that is ludicrously referred to as Northern Ireland. It's a bit sharper than Cashel Blue and has won quite a few awards. They also produce a goat's milk version.
 
Francesca said:
@buckytom

I did not meet " a guy in a hotel " .. We (my husband and I) met a group of American Tourists related publishing travellers, who stayed at the same hotel, as my Tourism Group coming from Barcelona.

The Hotel had a tiny "cooking" demonstration in which, this man who was affilated with Gourmet Magazine, prepared some home made Ricotta for the 2 tour groups at the Hotel.

His Ricotta was exceptionally extraordinary. Our newsletter covers all our tourism travel groups, hotels we recommend and the interesting cultural visits, monuments not to miss, restaurants we have eaten at etcetra .. He was very pleased that my staff wrote about his Ricotta and published the recipe with his written permission.

Thank you.
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Oh how I miss Gourmet magazine.
So much of the content was directed at the home chef and I would haunt the mailbox when it was due.
Read every magazine cover to cover and kept them all.
Until the day the DD intimated I was in danger of becoming a full fledged hoarder lol.
Went through the stacks and kept my very favorites and put the rest up for sale (as a lot) on the face of book.
Was shocked how many people were interested...enuf for a small bidding war.

As for cheeses... sharp cheddars mainly.
Don't keep up with the brands as I try whatever the shop is promoting and have yet to be disappointed.
 
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@Duck59

Thank you for your additional info on blue cheese varieties ..

There was a promotion at the oldest Department Store in Spain (1936), called: El Corte (pronounced Court) Ingles a couple of years ago with tastings to promote cheeses from Nothern Ireland .. It was very fascinating .. I think I recall this as it is unpasterised ..

The supermarket which we call a " hyper market " as it is quite enormous in metres, has sections marked clearly with the Countries of Origins marking the zones where these products are located / shelved / refrigerated etcetra ..

They have a quite a large cheese section.

Have a lovely day ..
 
bluejeanbaby said:
Oh how I miss Gourmet magazine.
So much of the content was directed at the home chef and I would haunt the mailbox when it was due.
Read every magazine cover to cover and kept them all.
Until the day the DD intimated I was in danger of becoming a full fledged hoarder lol.
Went through the stacks and kept my very favorites and put the rest up for sale (as a lot) on the face of book.
Was shocked how many people were interested...enuf for a small bidding war.

As for cheeses... sharp cheddars mainly.
Don't keep up with the brands as I try whatever the shop is promoting and have yet to be disappointed.
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@bluejeanbaby

Thank you for your participation.

Have a nice summer ..
 
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