LINKS: The Great British Cheese Festival

By Erica

Why are the British so much more awesome than us when it comes to cheese? It seems like we import all great cheese news from England. Here some more!



The Great British Cheese Festival of 2010 happened last week at Cardiff Castle. It involved lots of sampling, making and rolling. There's a nice slide show of the event over at The Guardian.

Maybe one day Madison will have an event as cool as this. Or maybe Kara and I could plan one....

LINKS: What will YOU do for National Cheeseburger Day?

By Erica

Tomorrow, September 18th, is National Cheeseburger Day! ...maybe. According to a website dedicated to holidays, there is no documented origin for this day, nor is it technically an official National holiday. But I don't care!


The cheeseburger was supposedly invented between 1924 and 1926 when a homeless man told chef Lionel Sternberger to put a slice of cheese on his burger. Sternberger then put "cheeseburger" on his menu, and the rest is history. According to a recent survey, 44% of Americans prefer American Cheese on their burgers, while 38% prefer Cheddar cheese.

Happy (unofficial) Cheeseburger Day!

TASTES: Edelweiss Swiss

Here's another C:AJ tasting from the vault. It's a swiss cheese that we did not like. To quote myself, "it tastes like dirt." I'll let you watch the vid (below) to find out the whole story.

This tasting also resulted in some of our finest cheese photography:



I hope you enjoy watching the tasting more than we enjoyed eating the cheese!

LINKS: The Most Expensive Cheese Sandwich

By Erica


At the Frome Cheese show in England, chef Martin Blunos (above) announced his latest creation: a cheese sandwich that costs £111! That's about $171.50 for us Americans. The large cost comes from the addition of white truffle cheddar cheese (although flecks of gold add a few unnecessary pounds, too). Cheese sandwiches are all the rage in England, apparently, and Blunos is applying to the Guiness Book of World Records to get his pricey sandwich officially on the books.

Here's a full list of the ingredients (with their prices):

Black tomato – £1.51
Balsamic vinegar – £2.25
Pea shoots – 60p
Red mustard frill – 55p
Red amaranth – 55p
Two fresh figs – 1.36p
Apple – 34p
Sourdough loaf – £5
Extra virgin olive oil – £1.60
Quail eggs – £1.53
Edible gold dust – £3.30
West Country vintage farmhouse cheddar blended with white truffle – £92

LINKS: British Cheese Awards

By Kara

It was judgment day for British cheesemongerers. The 17th annual British Cheese Awards - known, apparently, as "the 'Oscars' of the cheese world" - began today in Kingham, Oxfordshire. (Can you imagine a more aptly-name venue for this sort of event?)

According to The Cheese Web, "In 16 years the number of British cheesemakers has more than doubled and there are now over 600 unique British cheeses made from cow, goat, ewe and even buffalo milk."

Categories include "Best English (Patrick Rance Trophy)," "Best Welsh (Douglas Campbell Trophy)," "Best Scottish," and "Best Irish (Eugene Burns Trophy)" - the best Scotts are apparently anonymous. Personally, I'm interested to see the results for "Cheese Person of the Year" (is this the British equivalent of "Miss Congeniality"?), and to learn more about the difference between "Best Modern British Cheese" and "Best Traditional British Cheese."

Judging will continue on Friday, September 24th - "Trade Day" - where judges will turn their attention to cheese exports for the first time in the history of the awards. That is also the day that the winners in all categories will be revealed - so check back then!

RECIPES: Apple Pie with Cheese Crust

This weekend, C:AJ had a potluck to go to, and we decided to bring a pie. Not a regular pie, though-- a CHEESEY pie.

As we've talked about before on this blog, cheese and apple pie are a common pair. In fact, many restaurants in Wisconsin, including The Old Fashioned on the square in Madison, serve their apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese. The pie that we made got a bit more fancy than that and incorporated cheese into the crust.

For those of you who want to try this out, remember that when you're making a pie crust, try to handle the dough as little as possible and only add enough water to just keep the dough together. Also, using half shortening and half butter is important for the perfect combo of flakiness and deliciousness, so don't substitute! One last tip: you can roll the crust out between two pieces of wax/parchment paper, which is much less messy and easier than flouring the surface of a table.

Here's the recipe (directly from epicurious) and some pictures of the pie in progress!

INGREDIENTS
Crust
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 tablespoons chilled pure vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup (firmly packed) coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 6- to 7-ounce Jonathan, Jonagold, or Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced

INSTRUCTIONS
For crust:
Place flour, sugar, and salt in processor; blend 5 seconds. Add butter and shortening. Using on/off turns, blend until mixture resembles fine meal. Add cheese; mix in using 4 on/off turns. Transfer dry ingredients to large bowl. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons water over. Using fork, toss until moist clumps form, adding more water by tablespoonfuls if mixture is dry. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Shape each half into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
For filling:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix sugar and cornstarch in large bowl. Mix in apples, lemon juice, and salt.
Roll out 1 dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish; brush overhang with water. Transfer filling to dough-lined dish; dot with butter. Roll out second dough disk on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Place dough atop filling. Press overhang of bottom and top dough pieces together to seal. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang under; crimp decoratively, forming high-standing rim. Cut several small slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake pie until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cover crust edge with foil. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Bake pie until filling bubbles thickly in center, about 30 minutes. Cool pie on rack 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.





P.S. The pie was a hit!

LINKS: Old Cheese

"This is the story of a hundred-and-seventeen-year-old piece of cheese..."

This is the first line of a new short piece by Robert Sullivan called "Say Cheese" on the New Yorker Website. It's a mysterious tale of cheese, war, and grandparents.

Click here to check it out!

THOUGHTS: "Maybe we could wrap it in plastic"

By Kara

Last weekend, after a week spent rambling along and around the highways from Massachusetts and Wisconsin, I headed over to the Orton Park Festival to sit still for a moment and re-acclimate to life in the Midwest. It being 10:00am, I was just in time for the early musical act. I settled in with a magazine amongst a crowd of infants and elders.

Little did I know that - within 24 hours of my return to Madison - the ambient environment would rekindle my passion for this journey of ours.

The act was good - a husband and wife team performing showtunes, both classics and originals, with a combination of real musical talent and irrepressible gusto. Before long, I was neglecting my New Yorker, clapping when they asked me to, and genuinely enjoying myself. How charming, the Midwest, I thought - I had nearly forgotten.

And then they cinched it. "In this next number," the singer announced, "Mrs. Velveeta is yearning for the perfect cheese to feed her picky children."

And it just got better! I wish I had written down the lyrics. All I can recall is the chorus: "Maybe we could wrap it in plastic..."


I imagined this song taking place at a pivotal point for Mrs. Velveeta... For me, it was the perfect reminder of what a quirkily delightful city I live in. And, of course, of the power of cheese.

Onstage, the musicians call themselves The Rohnellaros (check out their Facebook page here!); in the rest of their lives, they are known as Andrew Rohn (composer) and Catherine "Cat" Capellaro (singer/writer). The song they performed was part of their "underground hit" musical, "American Cheese!" (They are better known for their "politico-musical comedy," "Walmartopia," which was produced at the New York Fringe Festival and off-Broadway.)

Links: Wisconsin wins again!

By Erica

Last weekend, the 2010 American Cheese Society competition was held in Seattle. Wisconsin, of course, took home more prizes than any other state! Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville won Best in Show (who knew cheese and dog shows used the same terminology?) with their Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve. This cheese is only made in the summer when the cows are grazing on grass, according to their website.



We'll have to try it soon!