Tag: tasting

Brillat Savarin

Izzy Watson
Brillat Savarin

Origin: Ile-de-France region of la belle France We Paid: £2.90/100g from a gorgeous little cheese shop called La Cave à Fromage in Hove. Click here to visit. What is it? A cheese that’s soft and ridiculously creamy, and hits the bulls-eye flavour wise, (maybe a little too hard). Une petite french histoire: Allow us to introduce Brillat Savarin…the man, the myth, the legend, gastronome extraordinaire, short on hair (there’s not a lot there), cheese-munching, woman loving (probably) JEAN-ANTHELME BRILLAT SAVARIN. Often touted as the first foodie, Savarin achieved what us mere mortals can only dream…

Mont D’Or

Ellen Moyse
Mont D’Or

Origin: Franche-Comte region of la gaie France We Paid: Rien, but it cost out lovely friend Livi £10 (per rond) Quick Description: A stinky, smelly stunner, great for dipping bread in General Info: This one came from Borough Market in London. A lovely fromagier there once told us that the Mont d’Or season is fleeting. Production begins in August and runs through to April, but the majority are made mid-winter with raw milk (unpasteurised) when the cow’s milk is ideal for soft and squishy cheeses. We got ours on April 1st…

Wensleydale

Ellen Moyse
Wensleydale

We’ve gathered our favourite Wensleydales from the factory. They all come from North Yorkshire! Hawes to be precise, down some rainy country lanes, which is the only place allowed to call their cheese Wensleydale.  Special Reserve Yorkshire Wensleydale We paid: £1.14 per 100g Brief description: A mature Wensleydale Smell: ‘It smells like a milky baby’ – Isobel Watson, 2016. I don’t know what babies she’s been smelling, but it doesn’t smell very mature (it’s been ageing for just over a month –  Elle suggested ‘month-old milk’ for the brief description…). It’s not…

Red Leicester

Ellen Moyse
Red Leicester

Origin: Leicestershire, England. We Paid: £1.99 per 100g, 2.62e per 100g Brief description: A very underrated, crumbly and rich cheese that Nigel Farage would be proud of. Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful cheese experience the oppression of the everyday Tesco value branding. We are here to liberate its reputation with a passion that could rival even the spirit of Donald Trump’s freedom cheerleaders. RED LEICE-STER, RED LEICE-STER, RED LEICE-STER Smell: Ellen: It smells like a farm. It has a complex smell that is earthy…

Munster

Ellen Moyse
Munster

Origin: Munster We Paid: £1.50 per 100g.  2.04€ per 100g Quick Description: Christmas time, mistletoe and wein! During this fabulously festive period we present you with a (faguely) festive fromage – Munster, a gooey Alsatian cheese that stinks to high heavens. (If you’ll never get to heaven in a baked bean tin then you certainly won’t make it on this cheese because the smell would knock you out before you got there). Smell: It smells of feta when it’s gone off, wet socks and mouldy carpets. This ‘smell’ category has to come…

Dutch Farmhouse Cheese

Ellen Moyse
Dutch Farmhouse Cheese

Origin: Nederland We paid: Nothing, it was a birthday present. Someone else paid €2.20 per 100g – only around £1.58 with the excellent (as long as you’re British) exchange rate at the moment. Brief description: A medium-hard cheese with an oily rind, both creamy and grainy texture and a strong classic flavour. WHAT THE DEVIL IS IT?: NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW. It’s an oily cheese, claiming to be ‘FARMHOUSE MULDER PIQUANT’. After a few rounds of ‘This isn’t spicy though’, ‘why does it say piquant if there’s no chilli?’ we…

Black Cheddar

Ellen Moyse
Black Cheddar

The night, dark corners, Izzy’s soul and… charcoal cheddar? Origin: Good ole motherland We paid: £2.12 per 100g The spookiest holiday of them all is upon us…Christmas!!! (Joking). In celebration, we made like Meg & Mog and flew our broomsticks to Chapel Allerton near Leeds to find some weird cheese. Please welcome to the stage English Cheddar mixed with charcoal (yes, actual charcoal). ‘Why?’ we hear you cry! Sorry fans, we have no idea. Freaky flavour: If Izzy was the North, and Ellen was the South Pacific then like Moses this…

Gruyère

Ellen Moyse
Gruyère

Origin: Switzerland We paid: 2.43e per 100g Quick Description: A rubbery cheese often served melted. First sniff: This one only smells a little bit like old fridge which, compared to some stinky blues, is quite an achievement! Izzy even declared the smell as ‘appetising’, so it’s off to a good start as it certainly smells like something we want to eat. Strength: On a scale of one to the strength of the Incredible Hulk, we are putting this cheese on par with Neville Longbottom – although mild, it’s surprisingly powerful…

Burrata

Ellen Moyse
Burrata

Origin: Southern Italy We paid: 1.96e per 100g (Disclaimer: It turns out Burrata goes off really REALLY quickly. If you include all the times you buy the cheese and let it go off before getting round to tasting it, then the price can rocket!) Texture: Although we expected a creamy cheese, the first thing that hit us both was the intense clotted cream-like texture. So much so, that an excerpt from Ellen’s notes reads ‘it’s almost like eating cream’ whilst Izzy wrote ‘liquidy, oozy and creamy’. After much meticulous research, it…

Figou

Ellen Moyse
Figou

(The middle row of fig-shaped cheese is the figou!) Origin: Limoges – mid-France We paid: 5.10 euros per piece After many a trip to the, albeit vast, supermarket counter we decided to branch out and make the most of our final months in Bordeaux. After three months of gawping at the window of Fromagerie Deruelle on a little cobbled backstreet, and despite the infancy of this blog, we finally took a leap of faith and poured our souls out to Elodie. Luckily, she only thought we were mildly crazy and…