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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)

#171

Post by foxyv »

Animats wrote: post #144
foxyv wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped buying pre-shredded cheese a decade ago. Block cheese is cheaper, lasts longer, and cooks better. Pre-shredded is just worse in every way aside from convenience. Using a cheap rotary grater like they have in restaurants makes this almost a non-issue.

> Block cheese is cheaper, lasts longer, and cooks better. Is this a promotion for the National Cheese Stockpile?[1] The US has about 1.5 billion pounds of cheese in storage in a cave in Missouri. Really. There's a USDA welfare program for dairy farmers, and they have to put the excess milk somewhere. So it's made into cheese and stored. [1] https://modernfarmer.com/2022/05/cheese-caves-missouri/

You can't really buy "Government Cheese." It used to be given out as part of food assistance programs in the US. I guess it was pretty okay cheese too. I think it's mostly given out as food assistance to other countries now since we moved over to SNAP debit cards.

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

#172

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rbrownmh wrote: post #100
dekhn wrote: post #15

Cheese crystals are umami. Many of them are glutamate crystals. I am curious if the other amino crystals have a similar flavor profile.

The umami flavor of cheese, especially hard cheeses, is incredibly under appreciated. And I'll never understand the popularity of pre-shredded cheese...

> I'll never understand the popularity of pre-shredded cheese...

If spending too much time in eve online taught me anything, it's that convenience is worth money. People are inherently lazy, and there's plenty of ways to exploit that.

The next level of pre-grated cheese is frozen pizza, for example.

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

#173

Post by josephg »

hollerith wrote: post #153
josephg wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner read a book on food recently. They made an obvious point I’d never thought of before: Food is eaten in our stomachs by bacteria. If the bacteria in our stomachs can’t (or won’t) eat something, that means it’s not digestible. That means it’s not food. If something is shelf stable, that’s because the bacteria can’t or won’t eat it. If bacteria doesn’t want to eat something, it’s not food. And you probably do…

>Food is eaten in our stomachs by bacteria. If the bacteria in our stomachs can’t (or won’t) eat something, that means it’s not digestible. Both of these are false. Bacteria are not needed for the proper function of the human stomach (or the small intestine). The human body produces digestive enzymes, HCl and bile (and maybe bicarbonate) which combined will digest most foods without any help from bacteria. Bacteria a…

There’s more and more content these days talking about “the new science of gut bacteria” and talking about how important it is to our health and wellbeing.

Do you think all that is bunk / pseudoscience?

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

#174

Post by foxyv »

xp84 wrote: post #162
tshaddox wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the convenient version of something always worse in every way aside from convenience than the less convenient version of the same thing?

With the caveat that the ways it's "worse" can easily be irrelevant compared to the convenience. For instance, I buy way more shredded cheese than blocks. It removes an annoying step that creates a dirty utensil that isn't trivial to clean (grater). If I'm making 3 quesadillas a day for picky children to eat at different snack or mealtimes, I don't want to own 3 shredders, nor to have to carefully scrub the cheese of…

My parents bought pre-grated as well. It's a great option for someone with kids.

However, I would recommend grating a block for a couple days worth at a time and keeping it in the fridge in a food storage container. That way you don't need 3 shredders or to spend all your time cleaning shredders every time you want a quesadilla. An electric rotary shredder or a kitchen-aide attachment makes it trivial.

Also, try adding a little canned Red Enchilada sauce to your quesadilla or egg and cheese burritos. It's life changing!

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

#175

Post by EA-3167 »

Tade0 wrote: post #111

I spent a couple of months in Switzerland for a project and supermarkets there often have this booth that me and my friends referred to as the "Kingdom of Cheese". The Kingdom of Cheese is a climate-controlled enclave with just cheese - the person there is happy to help you decide because they know you'll be back eventually as indeed the products there have those crystals.

Back eventually? I'd personally set up a little tent in the foyer and live there year 'round, like an increasingly portly mouse.

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

#176

Post by ahartmetz »

GuB-42 wrote: post #154
ahartmetz wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if you get bright white(!) spots on cheese like Brie (which is made with white fungus), it's usually just the cheese "reactivating". You - theoretically - don't even need to cut off anything.

I remember having a brie-like cheese cut in half and left forgotten in the fridge for more than a month. The mold had reformed completely, as if it they were made like this in the first place. It tasted fine, no one got sick. Kind of underwhelming to be honest, but it wasn't particularly tasty to begin with: industrial cheese, pasteurized milk. It fact, that it still had some life in it surprised me.

Fun! I've never let it come that far. Was it somehow fuzzy or really like the firm, white skin that it has when you buy it?

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

#178

Post by silisili »

superb_dev wrote: post #103
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's a bit heavy for my liking, but add some breakfast sausage and sour cream and you have basically every party queso.

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

#180

Post by talkingtab »

anamexis wrote: post #107
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"?

In Europe, and at gourmet cheese stores, you get a slice from a wheel. It is alive, in the sense that it has not been "treated" to increase shelf life. A wheel of cheese is like a little biome or green house or garden in a bottle. The rind of the cheese is the wall. It allows the cheese to breathe, but in a way that preserves the life inside it. Once the wheel is cut, the bottle is broken, and while the cheese can be kept for a time, it will start to degrade. The humidity (~80-85 %) is important so the cheese does not dry out and it does not become a nice home for unwanted mold, bacteria and fungus. The temp of ~55 F is also important so that the little things can live but don't start over growing.

If it comes from a wheel where it was aged, almost any cheese is good - depending on your particular taste. The aged ones with crystals are great, especially Dutch ones, but "local" cheese is almost always wonderful.

I was in Colby, Wisconsin a couple of times and I found the local Colby cheese to be good. Many locally made cheese are good, but again if they are bagged in plastic then they do not compare with the "real" thing.

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