Let's start a wine club!

[rogerg]

and we need proper information about which wine goes with which biscuit.

Vintage champagne- usually comes with its own "biscuit", and is therefore automatically Frost*-approved!

Other than that, a Sauternes dessert wine would be a fair bet.

We're on a $10 bottle of Red Diamond merlot from Washington State right now- one of the better semi-cheap wines here, I reckon.

As for cheese, I had a bit of Canadian Cheddar with it, on water biscuits.

Canadian Cheddar?!?!  need me to send you some Cabot Cheddar from Vermont?

I've been getting the Boar's Head Canadian for a while now, so it's only laziness on my part, rather than a desire to prop up the Canadian cheese industry. Having said that, outside of the Cabot stuff  most major US cheese producers (not the craft guys obviously) are pretty crap. Why is Vermont so different from the other states when it comes to food ?- even Cabot's cottage cheese is completely different from every one else's.

Anyway, can you mail cheese as a private citizen, or do Homeland Security get their panties in a bunch?

must be all our fresh air and clean living!

I'll have to look into mailing cheese, never done it!  of course, Cabot does mail-order, but.

but the words Homeland Security, cheese, and panties all in the same sentence...  oiks!   8-)

[EVP]

does grape juice count?   :mrgreen:

* EVP gets his coat and runs for the door*


Oh well someday when the doc takes me off the beta blocker hopefully I could
enjoy a glass or two  

P.S.  +1 on Cabot cheeses. They are some fine tasty products.
We have Helluva Good cheese near Rochester,also local favorites
and lets not forget good Amish cheeses too!

...right..back to the program.

[Nellie]

Nellie's top tip of the day.
Go to the supermarket and buy some wine that is half price (ie reduce £9). You will be (almost) guaranteed a decent bottle at a quaffing price. If you like it, very quickly go back and buy a case before it's all gone. Then you can be a cheap lush like me! :lol:

[Bert]

Nellie's top tip of the day.
Go to the supermarket and buy some wine that is half price (ie reduce £9). You will be (almost) guaranteed a decent bottle at a quaffing price. If you like it, very quickly go back and buy a case before it's all gone. Then you can be a cheap lush like me! :lol:

That's certainly a Tip Top Tip Nellie.  

Have you any more  :?:

[wickedwitch]

last bottle drunk in the wickedwitch household was a Maycas del limari syrah, which was well fruity but made my head a bit hurty the  next day.

[tomskerous]

Well, after

- a glass of cava
- 1/3 bottle of white rully
- 1/3 bottle of argentine malbec
- 1/3 bottle of rioja gran riserva
- a large glass of pedro ximinez
- a pint of bitter
- 1/3 bottle of chianti

I must say that my plan to hit the supermarket today to find some suitable bottles may be postponed a little...

[Nellie]

Ooooooo dearie me!
Hair of the dog later for you. Hope you feel better.

[Gandalf1986]

and we need proper information about which wine goes with which biscuit.

I know there are some recipes for wine biscuits

[Geetar]

In the spirit of "no whine without cheese" I give you the first in an occasional series:

Cheese Club Notes #1

Just got back from a Festival of Wisconsin cheeses at a local farmer's market. We met Steve Stettler, holder of Master Cheesemaker certification in a variety of innoffensive and - to me at least- somewhat unmemorable styles of cheesemaking. His cert is for Havarti, Muenster (American Münster), Brick and Farmer's cheeses.

Like Steve, the other Wisconsinite/Cheesehead representatives there had quite some self-regard going on. Yet despite the many prizes they said they've won ("More than any other State, or even any other Country!") in international cheese competition, I found their products underwhelming. Poor balance front-to-back, pointless and taste-bending colouring agents, strange textures, no length on the finish etc.


The wife was vastly unimpressed, and needed a hot cup of tea to wash her mouth out afterwards. I reckon the Wisconsin makers would get slaughtered in proper competition by the better French,  Spanish and Italian cheeses we used to get when I lived in Europe, or the UK makers sold in my favourite cheese shop in Bath. Even the smaller makers from Oz and NZ are way more impressive in my opinion ("Roaring 40's" comes to mind particularly).


So, the big questions:
1) As with wine, are national palates different when it comes to cheese?
2) Is Wisconsin overrated compared to, say, Vermont or even California?
3) How much cheese can you eat before needing a quadruple bypass?


Wine for the day : Penfolds 407 (the 2005)

[rogerg]

So, the big questions:
1) As with wine, are national palates different when it comes to cheese?
2) Is Wisconsin overrated compared to, say, Vermont or even California?
3) How much cheese can you eat before needing a quadruple bypass?


Wine for the day : Penfolds 407 (the 2005)

I'm am absolutely no cheese expert, having been raised on Kraft American Singles...

but:

#1. I would think so.
#2. definitely, especially in Wisconsin.
#3. I'll let you know.

I've been enjoying a Danish Havarti on some wonderful sesame crackers lately.  very yum.

Coffee of the Day: Eight O'Clock Bokar ground very fine.

[Nellie]

Doesn't Havarti taste of cling film?
There is a great little cheese shop in Teddington (near me) and a very patient young man who works there. I spent an afternoon tasting cheeses but had to leave when he gave me a taste of the most disgusting cheese in the world. It's very strong but in a farmyard way and has a texture like a slug. EEEEuUUUUWWWWKK! I have a mental block on it's name but if I think about, it I can still taste it.

Grilled Halloumi is very good.

[rogerg]

Doesn't Havarti taste of cling film?
There is a great little cheese shop in Teddington (near me) and a very patient young man who works there. I spent an afternoon tasting cheeses but had to leave when he gave me a taste of the most disgusting cheese in the world. It's very strong but in a farmyard way and has a texture like a slug. EEEEuUUUUWWWWKK! I have a mental block on it's name but if I think about, it I can still taste it.

Grilled Halloumi is very good.

well, I've never tasted cling film, so....

[Trapezium Artist]

Sounds like many of our USian Frosties* would agree with my opinion that cheesemakers in Wisconsin are in cloud-cuckoo land when it comes to their opinion of their own products.  

My first wife was an American from Wisconsin, giving me ample opportunity to be introduced to the, err, industrial products that my in-laws assured me was called cheese, and good quality at that, they insisted, not run-of-the-mill supermarket Kraft slices. It was, IMHO, uniformly rubbery, plasticy, artificially enhanced, coloured, and flavoured stuff: revolting. As for Wisconsin so-called parmesan, egads, the smell, the smell :!: Enough for my Italian friends to go to war over, if they could ever stop laughing and get up off the floor ...

Question: is it legally possible to make unpasteurised cheese in the US?

Anyway, I'm sorry, but cheese is what is made in France, Italy, Spain, the UK (even though I say so myself), and the Netherlands (one of my very favourite cheeses is Reypenaer VSOP, a two year old Gouda: bloody astonishing stuff, easily picked up at Schiphol Airport), plus a few other countries. By contrast, Wisconsin just mucks around with processed milk fat products masquerading as tasteless rubber.

[wickedwitch]

lurve halloumi. yum.  ooh i really fancy some now.

[tomskerous]

tonight I accompanied two glasses of Chateau Courac Cotes du Rhone Villages Laudun with this little gem from nigel slater:

take a big handful of diced pancetta and fry until golden
add quarter of a pint of double cream and bring to bubbling point
add a diced slab of gorgonzola and allow to melt
reduce a bit
pour over two baked potatoes
eat with a ton of salad - your life depends on it.