Review: Great Midwest Apple Cinnamon Cheddar Cheese

In theory, this should be a delicious cheddar cheese. Apples and cheddar just go together so well, as many old New Englanders will tell you as they enjoy a piece of apple pie topped with a thick slice of Vermont cheddar cheese.

Unfortunately, theory and practice don't quite meet up in Great Midwest's Apple Cinnamon Cheddar. It's a little weird-tasting, like there's something not quite right about the combination of cheese, apple, and sweet spices. The apple tasted artificial, and the of cheese they used is very mild, almost as bland as boring old American cheese and a bit on the squishy side like a processed Jack. If only Great Midwest had chosen a good, aged, hard, sharp cheddar instead this could possibly have been great.

Wanna give it a try for yourself? Right now, Great Midwest is offering a 75-cent coupon for any of their cheeses on their website.  Links:

Get the coupon here - This coupon expires on 1/31/2013

Visit Great Midwest's website here.

Great Midwest cheese can be found at Price Chopper stores.

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McDonald's Shamrock Shakes Are Back Again

Hey, heads up, Shamrock Shake fans! They're back at the local McDonald's for a limited time, and for the first time they're being offered nationwide.

I loved Shamrock Shakes when I was a kid, and they're still my faves. Ever since I had my first one when I was eleven, I've looked forward to the St. Patrick's Day season when Mickey Dee's would bring them back.

i don't like the new default way McD's serves their shakes as part of the McCafe lineup, though - really, who needs whipped cream and a cherry on top of a shake?  I got one all decked out in the finery one time, and was totally unimpressed.  Just plain for me from now on, please.

Ricotta Cheese Overview

What do you look for when you buy ricotta cheese in the supermarket?  Do you go for a national brand? A smaller regional or local brand? Or do you buy the supermarket's "generic" label? A 48-ounce tub of ricotta (enough to do a large pan of lasagna) can run up to ten dollars or so for a national brand, and even having a coupon doesn't always knock the price down to the level of a store brand. So what do you do?

Personally, I look at two things when I'm shopping for ricotta cheese.  The first is the ingredient panel. There is no reason for ricotta cheese to contain anything except milk (whole or skim or a combination of both) a curdling agent such as lemon juice or vinegar, and salt. After all, if you were going to make it yourself, that's what you'd use.

After checking the ingredients, I look at the price tag. Given identical ingredients, I don't see a reason to pay a lot more for one brand over another.  Most of the time, that leads me to buy the supermarket's house brand.  Stop & Shop, for example, sells excellent ricotta much cheaper than most of the big brands.  And at ShopRite, the difference can be even more startling - Sorrento brand ricotta cheese is double the price of ShopRite's private label.

This is a typical supermarket ricotta cheese display - in this case, at ShopRite in Enfield CT. There are several varieties to choose from: Sorrento, Biazzo, ShopRite's house brand, Polly-O, and Sam Malucci & Sons (a local brand made in Hartford CT.)  Every one of these brands except one are made with the same ingredients: Milk, vinegar, and salt. The one brand that uses other ingredients? Polly-O, a product of the Kraft company. I never buy it - even when a coupon is involved - because I don't like the looks of the ingredient panel (pasteurized milk, whey, milkfat, salt, vinegar, guar gum, carrageenan, and xanthan gum.) The label says "all natural," and it's true that guar gum, carrageenan, and xanthan gum are indeed "natural" products. I just don't happen to agree with Kraft that they belong in cheese.

So...when you buy ricotta, are you brand-loyal or price-loyal?

App Review: Where Is My Milk From?

Back in 2010, I wrote about a website called Where is My Milk From?  Using the lookup function on that website, a user can enter the Plant # code from just about any commercial dairy product and find out which diary it was produced at and the actual location of that dairy.  The only drawback is that you need to be at your computer to use it - fine for looking up the stuff in your refrigerator, but not as helpful when you're in the supermarket checking out the store brand yogurt and wondering who actually made the stuff.

Screenshot by
whereismymilfrom.com

If you have an Android device, you can now do that lookup right in the supermarket as you shop, with the Where Is My Milk From? app. It's awesomely easy to use and provides you with a bunch of info.  Search on a Plant # code and you'll instantly get the dairy name and location; click for more info and the app will display the processor name, city, products they make, and even a Google map with the location.

I spend a lot of time in the supermarket reading labels. I want to know what's in the food I buy, but I also want to know where it comes from - especially when it comes to dairy foods because I try to buy New England-sourced dairy products whenever I can. It's also useful to find out where generic products are from. Recently, for example, ShopRite was running a sale on their own house brand of Greek-style yogurt. I was able to run the code through the app right there at the dairy case and find out that the yogurt was made by HP Hood at a facility in upstate NY. That was good news to me, because Hood is based in New England - in Lynnwood, MA - and has local processors in neighboring Agawam MA and Suffield CT. And just as importantly, they're a processor that I and my family have trusted for years.

The Where Is My Milk From app costs 99 cents from the Android App Marketplace, and I think it's well worth it. I found it almost by accident - I was in the store looking at a container of sour cream, wishing that I was at my computer so I could look up the code number on the tub, when it suddenly occurred to me that the website owners might have turned it into an app. When I checked...there it was! I'm happy I have it installed.

Link: Find the app right here.

LaYogurt (Triple Berry)

First of all, this isn't usually the kind of yogurt I normally buy. I'm not buying into this whole "probiotic" thing, for example - all active culture yogurts are "probiotic."  Also, I like my yogurt to be interesting, so I go with unusual flavors or types of milk. But I got a wicked sweet deal on a full case ($1.99, or about 17 cents each) of these and couldn't pass it up.

So. LaYogurt is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. The Triple Berry flavoring comes from juice, which is mixed with yogurt, sugar, and thickening agents to create a very smooth and even consistency. It's not the best yogurt in the world, but it is not heinous either. Perfectly acceptable (though a bit on the sweet side) especially for the price I paid.

Meyenberg Low Fat Goat Milk

If you've grown up drinking cow's milk, goat milk can be an acquired taste. Goat milk is stronger in flavor (I've heard it described as "gamey" or "strongly goaty") and has a different aftertaste than cow's milk.

As for me, I've always liked goat milk, and I can't resist picking up a quart when I find it (which isn't very often, BTW - goat milk is still considered a "specialty item" and a lot of supermarkets don't regularly carry it.)  For that matter, I like goat milk yogurt and goat cheese, too.  Hell, if I thought I could get away with it, I would keep a nanny goat here in my quiet suburban neighborhood and be all Goat Milk Dairyman with her.

Anyway. Different brands of goat milk seem to have different goaty intensities.  I recently picked up a quart of Meyenberg Low Fat Goat Milk and really enjoyed it. But I have to say it was much stronger in flavor than some of the other goat milks I've had.  It had a very distinctive "barnyard taste," which is something that some people find objectionable but I find interesting.

I would certainly buy it again, especially if I also have Cap'n Crunch in the house. Because that's something else about goat milk: it is awesome on Cap'n Crunch.

When is "All Natural" NOT All Natural?

Cabot Sour Cream claims on its label to be "All Natural!" but a look at the ingredients panel tells a different story - it contains "modified corn starch, guar gum, sodium citrate, carageenan, locust bean gum."

Apologists may argue that guar gum, carageenan, and locust bean gum are all "natural" products (guar gum is an extract of the guar bean, carageenan has it's origin in seaweed, and locust bean gum comes from, well, locust beans) but no matter how you try to spin it, sodium citrate and modified corn starch are both heavily processed manufactured products.  I am not saying any of this stuff is harmful - only that it seems to me that a dairy product which is made by so many other producers out of nothing but milk, cream, and culturing enzymes should not carry an "all natural" label when it is so full of unnecessary shit that serves only as low-cost filler.

An identically-sized container of generic no-name sour cream at the same store, stocked right next to the Cabot sour cream, had no gums or dubious thickeners in it at all and was selling for less than half the price of Cabot.