SC - icelandic sour Dough?

[Tollhase1@aol.com]

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> 
> >I wondered, the cheese list that
> >came  down the list last Pennsic (See we did talk more then twinkies last
> >year) had it listed  at 1500 Ad with a source being here:
> >http://www.efr.hw.ac.uk/SDA/book1.html
> ><http://www.efr.hw.ac.uk/SDA/book1.html>
> 
> If this is really a pointer to a primary source that describes the process
> of cheddaring, that would be very cool! :)

Unfortunately, no. It just gives the first recorded uses of the
particular cheese varietal terms. That has to be qualified by saying we
don't really know what Cheddar cheese from 1500 might have been like,
only that it was made near to, and sold from market from, the village by
that name.

BTW: I recently had an eye-opening experience (yet another courtesy of
Fairway Foods, Inc., my new favorite "fancy food" market, with just
about anything a serious foodie could need, at reasonable prices, sans
attitude -- they're too flamin' busy to have an attitude -- AND OPEN
24-7, for all that they're on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the only
part of New York City I'd seriously consider nuking as a boon to the
human race, with its exclusive cast of extras from "Seinfeld" and
"Friends" ) in which I found something called Keane's English Cheddar.
It turns out that this particular Cheddar is named for the farm on which
it is made, one of the last genuine cheddar producers in the region that
marketed its farmhouse cheeses from Cheddar. The farm has apparently
been in the same family's hands for close to five hundred years. Unlike
most cheddars, Keane's cheddar is a strictly raw product (part of the
process known as "cheddaring" involves heating the cut curds to firm
them up and get a greater yield in viable drained cheese, the other main
part having to do with farmers pooling their curds in a cooperative
manner). So this is uncheddared cheddar, and might well be something
like the farmhouse "Cheddar" of 1500 C.E.

The odd thing is that Keane's cheddar resembled something between a
really old Gouda and young Parmaggiano-Reggio (a.k.a. Parmesan). It was
sort of yellowish beige, tasted like nuts, was fairly salty, firm and
slightly waxy in texture. It definitely bore little or no resemblance to
Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheddar.
  
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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