Cheesish Questions

POSTED BY: Hero
UPDATED: Monday, February 6, 2006 01:58
VIEWED: 2110
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HERO

Friday, February 3, 2006 4:36 PM

Do you enjoy a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese on your pasta? If so, do you prefer pure parm or the parm/romano mix? I'm asking because Benito Mussolini's son Romano died, thus making this issue ripe for a Real World Events Discussion. I for one prefer a little Romano mixed with my Parmesan (integrated you might say).

Also, if I say to you "Ham and Cheese" what sort of cheese do you immediately think of? I suspect the leading contenders are American and Swiss, with a paassing nod to cheddar. I prefer Swiss.

And American cheese...white or yellow? Yellow for me, white american cheese is an abomination.

I've always wanted my own wheel of mozzarella cheese, how bout you...are you a slice, block, or a wheel folks?

I expect there to be a large cross section of cheese opinion out there...after all I've found most of the people on this board, especially the liberals, to be pretty darn cheesy.

H

KHYRON

Friday, February 3, 2006 9:16 PM

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this ended up in a discussion about American politics in some way. Every other thread in RWED seems to.

I'm a philistine when it comes to cheese, and the only cheeses I can identify without looking at the label are cheddar and mozzarella. Not that I don't like cheese, it's just that I don't really care that much.

DREAMTROVE

Saturday, February 4, 2006 6:04 AM

American cheese is an abomination. Why we ever got stuck with this label, I don't know. I like the local NY cheddar. It's very sharp. Also monterrey jack, which is very mild. parmesan is okay.

I'm afraid this will turn into a discussion on the etymological derivation of the word cheese.

KHYRON

Saturday, February 4, 2006 6:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
I'm afraid this will turn into a discussion on the etymological derivation of the word cheese.

cheese
O.E. cyse, from W.Gmc. *kasjus, from L. caseus "cheese," from PIE base *kwat- "to ferment, become sour." Earliest refs. would be to compressed curds of milk used as food; pressed or molded cheeses with rinds are 14c. Fr. fromage is from M.L. formaticum, from L. forma "shape, form, mold."

cheddar
1661 (but the cheese was presumably made long before that), from Cheddar, a village in Somerset, England, where it was originally made, from O.E. Ceodre (c.880), probably from ceodor "ravine" (there is a nearby gorge).

source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=c&p=10

CITIZEN

Saturday, February 4, 2006 2:54 PM

If the French can ban people from calling a sparkling Wine champagne unless it comes from the champagne region, even if it uses the same grapes, I think the English should be allowed to ban anyone from calling their cheese Cheddar unless it comes from Cheddar.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

THATWEIRDGIRL

Saturday, February 4, 2006 5:29 PM

In some odd weird way, I kinda think that's a good point. Didn't they do that with Pork Pies too?

oh right, my cheesy opinion, um...Cheese is yummy. Wheels are fun. Don't eat the coating. I like my Parm without the Romano. Ham and cheese? I definitely think of Swiss and am very disappointed when that's not what I get.

The other day a friend made lasagna without any ricotta or anything remotely Italianish (other than the lasagna). He used cheddar and American cheese. it was good I suppose, a bit too Hamburger Helper for my tastes, but not anything like Lasagna.

www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Saturday, February 4, 2006 5:48 PM

American Cheese is not really cheese. It’s cheese-food. A reconstituted mixture of processed milk proteins. On the contrary, Cheese is enzymatically coagulated milk.

Now I’m not opposed to American Cheese on the whole. It’s just too tofu-ed for me. We have been making cheese and growing beans for thousands of years. We know how to do these things well and they are both excellent foods. There really isn’t a reason to extract some nutrient-rich sludge from the milk or the bean and artificially coagulate it into some thick artificially colored semi-hard block. Okay fine, some people have digestive problems or they are inches from death. Then maybe we could agree on some kind of predigested sludge to feed them. On the other hand, is that how you want to spend your remaining hours? When I shuffle off my mortal coil and meet Saint Peter at that gated community in the sky I don’t want my last meal to be processed cheese-food.

Also real mozzarella doesn’t come in wheels. Only the low-moisture, part-skim milk stuff does. Real mozzarella is a very soft and spongy unripen cheese made form whole milk and bathed milk-water.

As for Ham and Cheese, I’m totally a provolone kind of guy, and Mussolini’s son notwithstanding, I prefer pure Romano to Parmesan.

And as far as cheddar goes: I’m not a fan, so I don’t care what you call it, but living up to the French standards is not always a good thing.

Lasagna without ricotta cheese is bizarre.

Oh, he's so full of manure, that man! We could lay him in the dirt and grow another one just like him.
-- Ruby

OLDENGLANDDRY

Saturday, February 4, 2006 10:13 PM

A cheese fact that may interest our colonial friends is that the word "Yankee" derives from the Dutch nickname for the English settlers in Kuneticut (sorry if i've spelt that wrong) in the 1600's. They called them "Jan Quese" or John Cheese's.
And you thought this thread would go nowhere.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Saturday, February 4, 2006 10:34 PM

hmmm. Yeah. I’m not sure that’s a cheese fact; I think it’s just a cheese myth. And I have a friend from Amsterdam who told me that the Dutch use the nickname Janke for John, sort of like the same thing as saying “Johnny” in English. And John was a common name of many Dutch in colonial New England. So “yankee” is probably just an English bastardization of the Dutch name for Johnny. But yours is good too.

Also the Dutch word for cheese is actually Kaas, as far as I know.

And Quese looks like the Spanish word for Cream Cheese.

And the state you’re thinking of is Connecticut.

Oh, he's so full of manure, that man! We could lay him in the dirt and grow another one just like him.
-- Ruby

CITIZEN

Sunday, February 5, 2006 3:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
And as far as cheddar goes: I’m not a fan, so I don’t care what you call it, but living up to the French standards is not always a good thing.

My point, as it often is when I speak of them, was "F**k the French". If it's made of the same grapes, its sparkling, it tastes like sh*t and is grossly over priced, then you know what, it's champagne

.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

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