Maple Leaf Brand Apple Harvest Cheddar Cheese with Cinnamon - in the top portion of the photo at left - is a medium-sharp orange cheddar with cinnamon and chunks of apple added. The flavor was very good; the sweet-tart apple bits complimented the cheese and reminded me of the old New England tradition of having cheddar cheese and apple pie for breakfast. Apple flavoring permeated the cheese in a good way, giving just a hint of the fruit in the background. Great snackfodder.
We also liked the Rhapsody White Stilton with Rum and Raisins. Pressed into the cheese and imbuing it with flavor, the rum and the raisins both went really well with this very mild Stilton. Unfortunately, the cheese itself was a bit "grainy" in texture. Still a good choice for casual snacking with friends around an early fall evening fire.
Links:
Maple Leaf Cheese - An interesting and unobtrusive website telling the story of Maple Leaf Cheese, a farmer-owned Wisconsin dairy co-op since 1910.
I'd provide a link for Rhapsody, but there just isn't any info out there on the web, other than a couple of sales sites. Sorry.
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2 comments:
Holy shit, I love cheese, you know I do, but these may be a little too gimmicky for me... Apples? Raisins? Hmmmm... nope, too "healthy" and "hoity-toity" for me.
These combinations of cheese and fruit items are not very easy to get right- from a food safety standpoint as well as a flavor profile.
Wisconsin companies have the Center for Dairy Research at WM Madison to help them out- you have to get the pH just right in order not to have the "nasty" microb's grow.
Maple Leaf does a good product as do several others. Look for products from Henning Cheese as they are very well done.
cheezmaker
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