A Focus on Hard Cheese

Village Cheese Co “Cheddar Smokehouse”
I’m finding I’m not a huge fan of smoked cheeses. This one comes from Armstrong, BC. It was hard and granular like a regular cheddar. Pasteurised milk is its main ingredient, I’m assuming it’s cow because the company’s logo has a Holstein-looking cow being milked on it. The label has no nutritional information. I didn’t like the taste of it too much. Melted was a different story. The taste of the smoke melts with the cheese and really mellows the taste. The fat separates well enough, so it’s easy to drain off and the cheese still has a nice gooey texture once it’s been drained. My 82 gram piece was $3.35 (the kilo sells for $40.90).

Dubliner Cheese Kerrygold
No rind really to speak of, the outside is slightly harder than the inside, but there’s barely a difference. It’s a hard, granular cheese (Moisture Content is only 37%) and the buttery taste is that slightly sweet, slightly tart one that makes your tastebuds dance. Pasteurised cow’s milk is the main ingredient of this, perhaps obviously, Irish cheese. It melts really well. Very gooey – I would LOVE to see this as part of a grilled cheese or atop a pasta dish. When it melts, the oil doesn’t separate easily, so if you melt in order to drain some of the saturated fat, the cheese doesn’t give it up without a fight. The Milk Fat content is 31%. My 88 gram piece was $3.07 at Capers/Whole Foods, and the kilo goes for $34.90.

Kaltbach Gruyere by Emmi
Lovely smoothness (Moisture Content is 38%) to the cheese at room temperature. This Swiss cheese has a very mild taste to it. The closer you get to the buttery rind, the stronger the taste gets, but only by the tiniest of degrees. The outermost rind isn’t edible, but it was no effort to remove it. Similarly with the colour – in the centre it’s a light yellow and at the edible part of the rind, the colour gets a little deeper towards a brownish-grey. Melted, it’s easy to see why Gruyere is the go-to cheese for fondue. The fat (it has a Milk Fat of 28%) separates very easily and the soft cheese remaining has a faintly nutty-mushroomy taste to it. Very tasty. The Emmi Website says this cheese has been cave aged, Kaltbach is the name of the cave itself. Gruyere is an AOC protected trademark within Europe. My 30 gram piece was only $1.50 (but the kilo retails for $49.90) at my local Whole Foods.

Photo of the Kaltbach Gruyere from www.emmi-kaltbach.ch
Photo of the Kerrygold Dubliner from www.kerrygold.com