In France, a rare feast dispenses with cheeses with noble beneficial mold, while we have this product undervalued.
Cheese Benefits
If you do not have contraindications to consuming a tasty morsel, calmly enjoy cheeses with a noble beneficial mold, because it is a storehouse of vitamins, minerals and well-digested proteins, rich in essential amino acids. A pleasant news for those who do not tolerate or react poorly to lactose: in cheese there is practically none, while all the beneficial substances of milk are stored. Do not forget that cheese with mold is a high-calorie product with a high fat content. Nutritionists advise to observe the measure: not more than 50 grams per day.
Choose yourself any!
White cheeses (or cheeses with a soft crust) are covered with a gray velvety shell of noble mold. Cheese mass is flowing, creamy. The most famous members of this family are French brie and camembert. Not many are able to distinguish them according to taste and appearance, whereas in France this is considered a sign of ignorance. Brie cheese is called king of cheeses and cheese of kings.
It has a delicate taste and a pleasant aroma of hazelnuts (rich, but subtle). It is with brie advised to begin acquaintance with mold cheese. As a rule, brie is produced in the form of large cheese discs and sold in pieces. The head of the camembert is smaller, so cheese quickly loses its liquid. As a result, the product has a slightly sharper smell and taste, which can scare away consumers who are ignorant of "cheese" issues.
Roquefort is a classic, the most famous representative of blue blood cheeses. However, the prices for this cheese seem to many unreasonably "biting". A worthy alternative to rolofer are cheese from cow's milk: French du Dover, German bergadier and Dorbl, Italian Gorgonzola, English stilton, and also a product from Denmark - danabloo.
The next family is cheeses with washed crust. These include cheeses covered with a layer of red or orange mold on top. This color is obtained by washing the heads of the cheese with a special brine. This is the most fragrant group with a very sharp smell and piquant taste. In other words, this is an amateur product. Cheese mass is soft, with a golden tinge. The group combines very different cheeses according to their characteristics: the famous German Munster, a tiny piece of which is able to fill an unpleasant ambience with a room the size of an assembly hall, and the most delicate French Montagnard. Another representative of the famous smelling cheeses is Limburgish.
Also on the shelves of shops there are hybrid varieties with white mold outside and blue inside. These include the Austrian trauten-feltser and the German cambocola.
Only the first freshness
The ideal cheese with a white crust has an easy, barely perceptible "mushroom" smell of penicillin. A sharp ammonia spirit is a sign of a stale product. Such cheese should not be bitter, only light bitterness is allowed. If there is a dry crust on the surface, and the white color begins to acquire a reddish tinge, then the product was stored incorrectly or for too long. The cheese mass should be homogeneous, tender, slightly oily. The indicator of poor-quality goods is the presence of voids.
The quality blue cheese has a soft, slightly moist and loose mass, but it should not crumble. If cavities with mold take up most of the cheese, then this product is not the first freshness.
Cheese with noble, useful mold is recommended to store at a temperature of 4 to 6 C in individual packaging, for example, in food foil or wax paper (so that the flesh does not dry out and lose its "spirit", and mold spores do not spread to other foods in the refrigerator) .
Cheese plate for dessert
Noble cheeses require an exquisite neighborhood. Cheeses with white crust (brie, camembert) are perfectly combined with figs and ripe pears. The taste of blue cheeses harmonizes with ripe grapes. Universal "companions" are dried fruits and nuts (walnuts or almonds). The more intense the taste of cheese, the "stronger" wine should be. Red wines are best served with soft to taste cheeses, and dry whites - with spicy and more flavorful cheeses. If you are talking about a cheese plate, you can limit yourself to classics: white dry wine.