Say cheese…

CHRIS BENNETT has been thinking about the ultimate comfort food.

A SMILE is always in order when anyone says “Say cheese”. It was a photographer’s device, especially in the early days of the art when the subject had to be still for a few seconds, to evince a smile and relax those being photographed. Now that the awkwardness of posing for pics has gone out of fashion, thank heavens, we see more natural images.

I have always been very partial to cheese, as are most in my family. Its uses are endless, almost, and its variety is astonishing. We have a fine range of locally made cheeses here on the South Coast, most of which are widely available, although some supermarkets seem unaware of what we make. There is at least one that has a very limited selection of South African soft cheeses, but most are fairly good. Perhaps the most comprehensive selection, both imported and local, is to be found at the supermarket in the Hibiscus Centre.

Number one for me is a good cheddar, and number two a good camembert.

We make brilliant camembert in this country, in the Cape winelands; the best to my mind is the Simonsberg cheese with green peppercorns. It is not all that easy to find, but the major supermarkets sometimes have it. Like several of the canoe farms they have an attractive website which is worth a look. Google it.

I met with one argument that ran along these lines: soft cheeses, camembert and brie, have limited appeal here. I think that is nonsense. I might agree that they are an acquired taste, but it doesn’t take much acquiring.

Cheddar is not so easy to buy, not a good one anyway. Some makers freeze the cheese which tends to increase its crumbliness and make it difficult to grate. Most makes are adequate.

For my taste cheddar and parmesan make the most useful cooking cheeses. If you want to make cheese sauce, and I do quite often, then a local cheddar is perfect. Use butter to make the roux and add a teaspoon of English mustard to the finished sauce, stirring it thoroughly. A splash of bee does no harm either.

I buy parmesan in a lump and grate it myself. I find the ready grated stuff doesn’t keep. And let’s face it; if you can’t be bothered to grate a bit of cheese then you shouldn’t be in the kitchen.

Like so many foods, likes and dislikes abound when it comes to cheeses. I am not fond of the rubbery cheeses from Holland, but, when I can get it or afford it, I will use Emmenthal or Gruyère, both of which are Swiss. They have a rich, tangy flavour, and in winter make a beautiful fondue, for which a dry white Cape wine does very nicely.

Cheese has been around for a long time.

Because of a lack of evidence there is no agreement on when and where cheese first appeared. History tells us that it was already a well developed craft by the time the Roman Empire came into being some two thousand years ago.

Some boffins have out the emergence of cheese making as far back as 10 000 years ago (there is nothing quite like a well aged cheddar).

It is probable that the process of cheese making was discovered accidentally by storing milk in a container made from the stomach of an animal, resulting in the milk being turned to curd and whey by the rennet from the stomach.

But maybe that is a little more information than you really needed.

Research: Classic Cheese Cookery: Peter Graham; Penguin, London, 1995; Cheese Cooking and Entertaining: Jill Croxford; Pelham Books, London, 1975; Wikipedia.

CB

18/3/11