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It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

thephcheese.com

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Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#101

Post by Suppafly »

robocat wrote: post #99
Suppafly wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I started to notice this when I was hanging out with a very smart friend who worked as a restaurant cook. They just noticed heaps of stuff I didn't if we went out for a meal. Or they were being pretentious to try and impress you. I suspect even they can't tell if melted cheese within a dish started out pre-shredded or not.

You are making up stuff. Skill and pretentiousness are independent variables. Assuming that one is correlated with the other is a sign of poor judgement. I know people that fit would fit in each of the four quadrants {skillful-pretentious, unskilled-pretentious, skillful-humble, unskilled-humble}. Anecdotally cooks are not usually pretentious - perhaps in your circles or in your city things are different? Personally…

>Anecdotally cooks are not usually pretentious

Not saying they are, but the types of folks that constantly point out little details that only they themselves can seem to distinguish often are.

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#102

Post by clmul »

jajko wrote: post #55
borski wrote: post #4

Visited Gouda in the Netherlands and learned this. Best cheese I’ve ever had.

Old aged gouda is the best cheese I ever laid on my tongue. We live in Switzerland next to French border, so there is no end to universe of fine aged original Gruyeres, Beaufort or even Cheddar (but that one probably worse than what one can get in UK), plus all AOC Italian ones. Simply hard cheeses with grain, there are hundreds to choose from. I love them all, but that gouda taste is something else to me and my wife…

People in the Netherlands are usually not at all proud of their cuisine, but the cheese is definitely a nice aspect (as someone who eats the >1 year ripened stuff almost daily)

Although for me some of the French cheeses are the best. Just what you're used to I guess :D

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#103

Post by superb_dev »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #90
goosejuice wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't do this in a restaurant but a quick cheese sauce for something like nachos. Just pop some shredded cheese in the microwave with some heavy cream or half and half. Adjust to taste / texture. Stir well. Mornay, citrate, and evaporated milk approaches work but I'm lazy so I just do the cream approach for "queso".

Honestly for a quick cheese sauce for nachos I don't think you can beat Velveeta. It doesn't get easier, and I prefer the flavor of American cheese for things like that.

Melt together some velveeta and a salsa for a pretty good cheese dip

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#104

Post by tombrossman »

s0rce wrote: post #68
astura wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are super religious about this but I've never been able to tell pre-shredded cheese from cheese I've shredded myself and I don't think anyone else can tell the difference in a blind taste test.

I typically find the anticaking agents are very obvious, you can often feel them with your fingers and see them in the appearance of the product.

I was taught to use a little cornstarch sprinkled over freshly grated cheese, and to me it is undetectable (served hot or cold) and works amazingly well. The shreds never clump together and are easy to scatter evenly.

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#105

Post by genewitch »

goosejuice wrote: post #86
jajko wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old aged gouda is the best cheese I ever laid on my tongue. We live in Switzerland next to French border, so there is no end to universe of fine aged original Gruyeres, Beaufort or even Cheddar (but that one probably worse than what one can get in UK), plus all AOC Italian ones. Simply hard cheeses with grain, there are hundreds to choose from. I love them all, but that gouda taste is something else to me and my wife…

L'amuse will blow the mind. One of the best cheeses out there and I've had hundreds. Chällerhocker is another great one in your neck of the woods.

I've had most Dutch cheeses, and my personal favorite is smeerkaas, in the little gold cups.

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#106

Post by hettygreen »

xattt wrote: post #10

Tangential, but I recently noticed that natamycin, an antifungal agent, is being used in packages of shredded cheese as a preservative. I was a little taken aback on seeing it, given that antibiotic stewardship has been pushed so much in the last decade. I realize that natamycin is an antifungal and not an antibiotic, and that mechanisms of developing resistance are likely different between eukaryotes and prokaryotes…

All the more reason to Make America Grate Again..

I'm here all night folks.

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#107

Post by anamexis »

talkingtab wrote: post #75

It seems wrong to me that most of what people now call cheese is not at all like what I think of as "real cheese". I have ended up making cheese and it is both fascinating, productive and tasty. While there are many "recipes" for cheeses, they are mainly focused on preparing the cheese for aging. These are often techniques, like washing the curd (gouda) or cheddaring (cheddar). The aging part takes more work. I conve…

What do you think of as "real cheese"?

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#108

Post by matheusmoreira »

xattt wrote: post #10

Tangential, but I recently noticed that natamycin, an antifungal agent, is being used in packages of shredded cheese as a preservative. I was a little taken aback on seeing it, given that antibiotic stewardship has been pushed so much in the last decade. I realize that natamycin is an antifungal and not an antibiotic, and that mechanisms of developing resistance are likely different between eukaryotes and prokaryotes…

Antifungal resistance is actually a thing. Fungi can evolve or acquire resistance mechanisms against antifungals, just like bacteria and antibiotics.

Arguably it's an even bigger problem than antibiotic resistance: fungi are eukaryotes, just like us, and in practice this means we have less chemical weapons to fight them with. Losing the relatively small arsenal we have would be quite bothersome to say the least.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5587015/

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#109

Post by psunavy03 »

floren wrote: post #54
7speter wrote: post #51

Was proud I planned out buying a couple of pounds of cheddar from the supermarket and keeping it in our spare fridge for a year and had aged cheddar for Thanksgiving baked mac and cheese last November.

If you're ever in Pullman, Washington, stop in at the WSU dairy store and get a few cans of Cougar Gold cheddar. Cheese in a can sounds weird, but it's delicious, made by the students, and it ages really well -- I've got some cans in my fridge which are coming up on a decade old now. It's kind of a waste to use an aged can for mac and cheese, but I used part of a younger can for mac & cheese and it came out beautiful…

As a Penn State grad I feel like WSU and PSU need to have a creamery-off for charity or something.

Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)

#110

Post by bityard »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #33
0_____0 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangent on tangent - in addition to the antifungal there is also anticaking agent (nothing crazy, often some type of flour) that noticeably changes the mouthfeel of cheeses that come pre-shredded. If you notice a grainy texture in your food, try grating it off a brick instead!

it's wood pulp. sawdust derivative. aka cellulose. don't buy pre-shredded cheese unless you like replacing up to 10% of your cheese with essentially sawdust at a premium. https://www.eater.com/2016/3/3/11153876/cheese-wood-pulp-cel...

Nope, the shredded cheese I buy uses potato starch. And it's definitely a trace amount, not 10%.
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