At lunchtime I had a cheese salad. Salad at lunchtime is not unusual for me. Cheese at any time is quite the norm. I love cheese of all sorts. My salad cheese though is usually a seriously strong cheddar. Now I know that many of my friends are very sniffy about British cheese and Cheddar in particular. Well I'm not - so long as it is really tasty and some of the bog standard supermarket Cheddars are just that: including Pilgrims' choice Seriously Strong which I occasionally buy. So today when I tasted my cheese I was very surprised to find that it had virtually no flavour that my palate could discern. Then I looked at the packet and remembered that I'd bought it because its description was 'Wonderfully Strong and Punchy Extra Mature' but with 30% less fat. And therein lies the problem. As any chef will tell you, two of the most important flavour enhancers are fat and salt. So 30% less fat meant 100% less taste as far as I was concerned. I won't be buying that again.
Not only do the low fat cheeses have less taste but I've found that they do weird things when heated. If you use them for cheese on toast or in a cheese sauce etc. they go really funny almost plastic like in some cases. I've no idea why but I'm assuming something is added to them to replace the fat.
ReplyDeleteWell, Mark, that was my first and last trip into that particular world.
DeleteFat is flavour ~ I have heard chefs/cooks say the same thing in relation to meat. Everything in moderation I believe. I looked at low fat salad dressings in the supermarket recently and thought what was I compromising in flavour?
ReplyDeleteI think, Carol, that just as you say everything in moderation is the answer. My annual check-up nurse abhors my cheese-eating habits but my cholesterol is fine so she's not winning me over.
DeleteI sometimes get low fat yoghurt and can't tell but I can with cheese. It goes like that stuff they use on cheeseburgers at shows and tastes of nothing.
ReplyDeleteAdrian I eat Rhubarb Yoghurt and I'm not sure whether it's low fat or not.
DeleteI usually get own brand low fat Greek yoghurt and chop my own fruit into it.
DeleteYou and I would get along very well kitchen-wise, Graham, if I came to your place for a holiday (or you to mine) - cheese is one of my staple foods, too, and I often have "just" a salad (with or without cheese).
ReplyDeleteThe low fat/low whatever stuff that is on offer these days is often so full of artificial flavouring to make up for the lack of fat etc. that I wonder what is more harmful to us in the long run - eating a healthy amount of fat and salt in "normal" food, or less fat and salt but a higher intake of other flavouring substances. I rather stick to my full-fat yoghurt, cheeses, butter and so on.
I'm absolutely with you on this one Meike: particularly after this experience.
DeleteIf people don't want fat, they shouldn't eat cheese...should they?
ReplyDeleteNo Frances, they should not.
DeleteI'm finding it harder and harder to get good tasting yoghourt with fat. Most of what we have is 0% fat. They make it seem like it's a good thing. Like your cheese, it is not.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about the "extra mature", though???
DeleteThere's a great book to read called Salt,Sugar and Fat. It tells how marketers use salt sugar and fat to not only sell product but get us hooked on the product. It was a good read.
ReplyDeleteYes Red I've seen it but haven't read it.
DeleteI'm no cheese expert and suspect that perhaps (?) you'd find my preferred ones a bit boring for your taste. But I do agree about the fat = flavour. I've arrived at the conclusion for my own part that it's better to cut down on how much rather than go for the "light" variety (i.e. I'd rather have just 1 slice of the fatter cheese, than 2 slices of the "light" one...)
ReplyDeleteMonica I don't eat cheese by the slice. I eat it by the chunk. The idea of 1 chunk doesn't figure in my cheese-eating vocabulary either. This is why the Nurse probably despairs of my eating habits.
Delete"Pilgrims' Choice"? Which pilgrims chose this cheese? Perhaps the pilgrims who made their arduous way to Santiago di Compostela in Spain or maybe those who descended on Canterbury and Durham. Having a rucksack filled with cheese sandwiches must be very helpful for a pilgrim - "He who would valiant be eats low fat cheese!"
ReplyDeleteThere's a Swedish cheese named Wästgöta Kloster... "kloster" means monastery (while Västergötland, incidentally, happens to be the Swedish province where I live). Monks figure in their adverstising, but judging from the products presented on their website, most seem to prefer the high-fat varieties...
DeleteActually the person referred to YP was Fredrick von Pilgrim that well-known native of Cheddar.
DeleteMonica I've certainly never seen a thin monk.
DeleteWhat a let down.
ReplyDeleteI saw a documentary the other day that described this exact thing....Fat=Flavour....who knew?
Virginia I did know the chef's mantra that fat=flavour and I should have taken heed.
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