Indeed it is a good one is Caerphilly. A bit like Lancashire if I remember correctly (I'm sure I'll get shot down if that is incorrect!)

Sorry for being late! Anyway, time for this weeks Cheese, another really nice one (but they all are aren't they!? The wonders of cheese!

Maasdam

Description:
Modern, creamery, semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk. It is boulder-shaped cheese. The smooth, natural rind is polished and may be waxed. The cheese was created in the early 1990's as an alternative to more expensive Swiss cheese Emmental. Although there are similarities with Emmental, it is higher in moisture and therefore, more supple. It ripens faster than other Dutch cheeses, being ready in four to 12 weeks. The flavor is sweet and buttery, with a fruity background, making it ideal for serving as a snack or breakfast cheese. It can also be grilled.

Hello folks, it's time for the Cheese Of The Week!

Back to Wales this time, and a cheese for you veggies out there. Anyone heard of this one:

Cwmtawe Pecorino

Description:
Round shaped, vegetarian, hard cheese introduced by Giovanni Irranca on his farm. This Pecorino-style cheese is typical for its aromatic, vaguely almond aromas. When young, the cheese is creamy. It is used as a table cheese and for grating. The cheese ripens in three months and the smoked version is also available.

cheeseman. I was at Narita airport the other day and noticed a stand that had a big sign on it. It said "Do you like cheese?" and there was some omiyage snack on there that (it seems) was cheese and chocolate flavor (yes cheese AND chocolate, together - not "or").

You better get down there mate.

I saw the same They were giving out samples as well quite nice actually.

It sounds curious but I would of course like to give it a try.

"Do you like cheese?" - what a silly question. of course we all like cheese!

Anyway, for this weeks cheese, a nice rarer one that goes great with white wine:

Crottin du Chavignol

Description:
A small flat disc made of goat's milk from Berry and Perigord in France, Crottins are available young to aged, from creamy mild to dry and chalky with an edible natural rind, they are excellent with dry white wines and rhones. Very tasty little Chevres. 'Crottin' translates to 'little dropping'. Un petit sense of humor on the farm that day. The cheese matures from two weeks to two months and has a fat content of 45 per cent.

There was a good article in the Independent online the other day about disappearing French cheeses. Shocking state of affairs. It appears the French govt. wants their country to have the same sort of dire cheese situation as prevails in Japan.

On my recent travels in Kyushu, I found a large and attractively packaged 'cheese and biscuits' omiyage. Bemused that it was not in a refrigerator, I picked one up - but by its weight, it appeared to be an empty box. I dread to think what was inside it.

Both of those things sound grim, cheeseman will be sad. And we were thinking that France was a nation of cheeselovers.

Do you know if that article is still available Ocean11?

Yes, but you have to pay for it now:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article302910.ece

Hey cheeseman, what's with the cheese fetish thing? Am I missing something?

I'm very sorrt for the lack of a Cheese of the Week these last few. But here is this weeks, we'll go to Austria this time.

Kugelkase

Description:
Kugelkase is a cheese that comes from Austria and is made from cow's milk. It is a creamery, balls-shaped cheese with pepper, caraway seeds and paprika added so that the curd becomes infused with their aroma. The maturation lasts for 2 to 3 months.

Cheeseman: recently tried 'Brillat-Savarin'

damn that's good

Kugelkase - had some of that when I was in Austria, really really liked it good stuff. I'd love to get more into cheeses, Japan's not the best place for doing that unfortunately.

"balls-shaped cheese"? Does it have little hairs poking out all around it?

Apart from the balls part, it sounds good. cheeseman - where do you get your cheeses from here in Japan? Care to share any secrets?

cheeseman I had a cheese foudue in Switzerland and they gave me and my friend what seemed like 5kg of cheese! It was just ott. Is that usually the case. If we'd have eaten all that, I'd have put on 8kg!

Sorry we have been away for a while - on our Cheese Trip of Europe which was wonderful. Anyway, here's the first Cheese of the Week for autumn and this one is smelly... some reckon the "smelliest" there is!

Vieux Boulogne

Vieux Boulogne, a soft, yet firm French cheese made from cow's milk and matured by washing with beer, tops a list of the smelliest cheeses reveals scientists today. The artisan-made cheese was tested for its smell along with other known pungent cheeses by Cranfield University on behalf of Fine Cheeses from France.

"Love it or loathe it, the sign of a fine cheese is often its characteristic smell as well as its flavour and texture and we wanted to find out if France's reputation for producing smelly cheeses was true," said Sally Clarke from Fine Cheeses from France.

Dr Stephen White, senior research officer Cranfield University led the study by using an electronic nose as well as a human olfactory panel to sniff out those with the strongest scent.

Fifteen cheeses were selected with the help of cheese experts in France and the UK and put through the smelly stakes. Dr Stephen White said: "The results suggest that electronic nose technology could be a useful tool for cheese characterisation, quality control and authenticity testing in the future. The smelliest cheeses were washed rind cheeses. There was no obvious correlation between the age of the selected cheeses and smelliness, nor type of milk origin, although cows' milk cheeses did dominate the smell chart."

Cheeses whose rinds are washed (in a salt water solution, beer or brandy) were rated smelliest. Tops was Vieux Boulogne followed by Pont l'Evêque - both washed rind cheeses, produced from the milk of cows raised on the lush, coastal pastures of Normandy.

Camembert de Normandie, the most widely imitated cheese in the world, was rated third. It has a natural rind and is best known for its creamy texture and mushroomy aroma. Hard cheeses were found to be least smelly of all. Goat's cheese, English Farmhouse Cheddar, Ossau Iraty, Raclette and Parmesan took the bottom five places in the smell league.

Pungent smelling cheeses are becoming more popular in the UK - Epoisses de Bourgogne (probably the most pungent smelling cheese that is widely available here) is now sold in Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose, but in this study it was found to be less pungent than other speciality rind washed cheeses such as Livarot.

I have experienced the smell of above cheese and can confirm it is absolutely disgusting. I could not put it in my mouth,.

Some of these foul smelling French cheeses are much better once you have actually put them in your mouth.

I don't like putting really smelly things in my mouth. It just doesn't seem right.