tasty cheese

Yes, I know what you mean. Great stuff.

If you like that, then try the French imitation Mimolette. Harder texture and slightly sweeter more balanced flavour. Origins date back to the reign of Louis XIV who prohibited Dutch cheese in France. A good one is really brittle, waxy orange with a natural rind and excellent with Belgian beers. Scary watching the deli cut it from the sphere.

Unpasteurised milk so not sure in the US imports it. Hmm... seems they do but your local version looks like a pale imitation of the real stuff.

Regards, Martin Brown

The country that can claim 2nd place (just after France) is Italia, with the parmigiano reggiano for example. But there are too many good cheeses here in France ... Don't get me started on "Saint Agur", it took me years to quit. Few US people can understand, behind the "unpasteurised milk ban shield"...

yg

In California, unpasturized-milk cheese is OK is it's aged for, I think, 45 days. That apparently kills bad bacteria. So pretty much only soft stuff has to be from pasteurized milk. We do occasionally get cases of contraband, usually Mexican, cheese making people sick and occasionally killing a few.

The pasteurized French bries taste pretty good to me.

John

If you want a truly excellent italian cheese (use with red sauce or agli e olio), try to find Siciliano Pepato. But, opt for the more heavily aged variety -- esp for grating.

which bacteria ? I'll have to ask specialists :-)

that's good to know, if I ever come over there again.

yeah, ok, well... well-aged Brie from unpasteurized milk is really delicious too, much more than the industrial version that USA accepts to import.

Now my trouble is to fight my addiction to cheese. it's not easy when so many delicious varieties are available :-/

yg

I hear about salmonella, e coli, and lysteria as killers. They can contaminate nearly any food products... veggies, chicken, eggs, fruit juices ("Odwalla: drink it and die"), unpasteurized milk, lots of things. Most people aren't much affected, but babies, old folks, people with immune problems can get very sick.

How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?

I have spent a bunch of time eating my way across the French countryside, and it seems to me that we don't suffer greatly from having to eat cheese from pasteurized milk. And American cheeses have improved hugely in the past decade or so.

I like these folks:

They're up in Point Reyes Station. I got introduced to the gouda by one of their people.

John

I'm surprised they could die in cheese... when you consider all the lifeforms that they could contain :

well, good question. But IIRC France has more than 1 cheese per day of the year so it's even worse ;-)

well, that's a consolation for the other stuff that have degraded at the same time... Traveling by plane is not the same pleasure as it was before :-(

french regards,

yg

Here is my favorite cheese is the end product of a long description below. It is made by my favorite bacteria.

My favorite bacteria are:

1. Not gram-negative
2. Free of lipopolysaccharide
3. Non-pathogenic
4. Non-toxic
5. Non-allergenic

In terms of respiration, they are any one of the following:

1. Facultative-anaerobes [can use oxygen but don't need it]
2. Obligate anaerobes [can only survive in total or near-total absence of oxygen]
3. Aerotolerant-anaerobes [can survive in oxygen but don't use it for respiration or otherwise require it].

Let=92s say the following hypothetical scenario occurs:

A sample of fresh, raw, annatto-free, preservative-free, carrageen- free, carrageenan-free, polysorbate-free, purely-natural, disease-free, completely-organic milk of a healthy happy Jersey cow [who grazes solely on natural, organic, healthy, pesticide-free pasture] is gently pumped into a hypothetical container that is eco-friendly, healthy-friendly, oxygen- free, air-tight, vibration-proof and does not let in any light when closed. The tubes connecting the cow=92s udder to the container are also light-proof [tubes don=92t let light in], eco-friendly, healthy-friendly, oxygen-free, air-tight, and vibration-proof.

At no point does any foreign object other than =93my favorite bacteria=94 enter the milk. This is true even when the milk is in the cow=92s udder.

After the milk is pumped into the container, my favorite bacteria decompose this milk as completely as possible and voila I've got me favorite cheese.

Actually, Charles DeGaulle said that!

John

I know, but you are at least 50% in the number you quoted by memory ;-)

"cheese",

yg

It was a simpler time and place.

John